Mala Radhakrishnan
Professor of Chemistry
Interested in computational biophysical chemistry, analysis/design of drugs and other biological molecules, and creatively teaching chemistry.
I develop and apply computational methods to analyze natural biological interactions and to design novel drugs and other biological molecules of therapeutic importance. My research interests are interdisciplinary, combining chemistry, physics, biology, applied mathematics, and computer science. I am especially interested in problems that require modeling at the molecular level as well as the systems or population levels, and I enjoy interdisciplinary collaboration with other researchers.
I teach introductory chemistry, computational chemistry, and physical chemistry for both chemists and biological chemists. I am particularly interested in encouraging strong numeracy skills and computational literacy among young scientists. As an alum of the Teach for America program, I am passionate about catalyzing educational opportunities for all youth.
I am also especially excited about combining creative writing with chemistry and have published Atomic Romances, Molecular Dances, a book of poetry that humorously teaches chemical concepts.
Education
- B.A., Harvard University
- Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Current and upcoming courses
Fundamentals of Chemistry with Laboratory
CHEM105
This course is designed for students majoring in the physical and biological sciences as well as those wishing an introduction to modern molecular science. Core principles and applications of chemistry are combined to provide students with a conceptual understanding of chemistry that will help them in both their professional and everyday lives. Topics include principles of nuclear chemistry, atomic and molecular structure, molecular energetics, chemical equilibrium, and chemical kinetics. The laboratory work introduces students to synthesis and structural determination by infrared and other spectroscopic techniques, periodic properties, computational chemistry, statistical analysis, and various quantitative methods of analysis. This course is intended for students who have taken one year of high school chemistry and have a math background equivalent to two years of high school algebra. Students who have AP or IB credit in chemistry, and who elect CHEM 105, forfeit the AP or IB credit.
This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 105L.
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Physical Chemistry I with Laboratory
CHEM330
Molecular basis of chemistry; intensive overview of theories, models, and techniques of physical chemistry; extensive coverage of quantum mechanics; applications of quantum mechanics to atomic and molecular structure, and spectroscopy; introductory statistical mechanics, with an emphasis on connections to thermodynamics; intermediate topics in chemical kinetics and introduction to reaction dynamics. The laboratory work involves learning elementary programming to quantitatively model data collected with various spectroscopies (UV-VIS, IR, NMR, fluorescence) using quantum theory.. This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 330L.