2023-2024 Academic Catalog

Mar 11, 2025

2023-2024 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CHEM 012 - The Science of Fermentation

The structure of this course is designed to highlight humanity’s rich history and tradition of preserving food and drinks through fermentation. The class will start by covering some general aspects about the fermentation process and then will focus on the application of microorganisms/biomacromolecules to different substrates to generate a wide variety of non-perishable foods, beverages and biomedically relevant substances. This class has a laboratory component where the students will make and characterize a wide variety of fermentation products, such as beer, wine, cheese and vegetables (sauerkraut, kimchi etc.). In accordance with University policy, the students will NOT consume alcoholic fermented derivatives product in class.

Through the lectures and laboratory experiments students will learn the basic principles of experimental design, the importance and need to control experimental parameters, rules of proportion, scaling and basic chemical concepts such as the difference between a physical mixture and a chemical reaction, solubility, acidity, density, gas laws, etc. In addition to this, the course will also cover topics such as the development of fat-free, lactose-free and low-calorie alternatives as examples of how public demands can affect scientific developments and how commercial research studies are structured, funded and regulated.

Course Designation/Attribute: SP

Anticipated Terms Offered: varies