Core Courses

To keep apace with the rapid changes in professional scietific inquiry, PGSS courses change from year to year. The courses and research opportunities listed below provide a general picture of the experiences students can expect. Students are required to take all the core courses at first but may drop one core course after the second week, provided they are carrying at least one elective course. The following are examples of recent core courses:

Core Courses

To keep apace with the rapid changes in professional scietific inquiry, PGSS courses change from year to year. The courses and research opportunities listed below provide a general picture of the experiences students can expect. Students are required to take all the core courses at first but may drop one core course after the second week, provided they are carrying at least one elective course. The following are examples of recent core courses:

* Biotechnology of HIV and AIDS: Examining how biotechnology is used in the development of the anti-HIV drugs, the molecular interactions between different drugs and their targets, and the causative agent of AIDS.

* Organic Chemistry: Treating the methods of preparation, reactions, and uses of some of the important functioning classes of organic compounds.

* Concepts of Modern Physics: Including special and general relativity, basics of particle physics, and the particle/physics cosmology interface.

* Discrete Mathematics: Looking at mathematics in a new way, using elementary combinatorics, graph theory, probability, and game theory.

* Computer Science: Using a mathematical approach to data organization, text compression, and cryptography.

All students must also participate in the following core activities for the duration of the program:

* Leadership: A workshop in which students are taken through a step-by-step method for planning and implementing a service project making use of their scientific and mathematical talents in their home communities.

* Lectures and Tours: Guest lectures by prominent scientists and tours of local facilities engaged in modern scientific technology.

Laboratory Research and Team Projects

Students select one laboratory course from biology, chemistry, physics, or computer science. It is recommended but not imperative that the course be in the same subject area as the team project.

Students must select one team project from the discrete sciences, interdisciplinary sciences, mathematics, or comptuer science. The project is a collaborative research experience that culminates in a formal scientific report, which is published in the annual PGSS journal as well as the topic of an oral presentation to the entire program community and guests.

Electives

PGSS typically offers from five to seven elective courses each year in addition to the required core courses, laboratory research and team project. Each student may take up to four elective courses. However, students are strongly encouraged to strike a balance between academic and social activities. More than four electives, in addition to the required curriculum, is considered to be an academic overload and requires special permission from the program director. Elective offerings vary from year to year and may include the following topics:

* Art and Science
* Astrophysics
* Developmental Biology
* Discrete Mathematics Mini-lab
* Machine Learning
* Mathematics Problem Seminar
* Medicine and Its Moral Consequences
* Nuclear Chemistry
* Origin of Mathematical Ideas
* Philosophy of Science
* Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information
* Topics in Material Science