ABOUT THIS COURSE

This course covers material that is usually taught in one-year college course in general chemistry. Our goal is to prepare you to pass the College Board’s CLEP examination and obtain college credit for free.

The CLEP examination places a major emphasis on understanding the structure and states of matter, reaction types, equations and stoichiometry, equilibrium, kinetics, thermodynamics, and descriptive and experimental chemistry.

During the examination, an online scientific calculator function and a periodic table will be available as part of the testing software.

“Chemistry” is a completely self-paced course. It has no prerequisites and it is offered entirely for free.

CLEP Exam

This course is designed to prepare you for the CLEP Chemistry exam and cover other related topics as well.

Instructors

• 
  Ruben Savizky, Ph.D.

  Professor Ruben M. Savizky, Ph.D., a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from The Cooper Union in 1998, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University in 2000 and 2005, respectively.

  Prof.Savizky’s graduate work involved the synthesis of small molecule inhibitors for RNA-protein interactions, particularly those involved in HIV-1 replication. He started his independent career as an assistant professor at The Cooper Union in 2005, and was promoted to associate professor in 2011. During his time at The Cooper Union, he taught over a dozen different courses that have been taken by engineering students across the entire school (freshmen through graduate level), including several laboratory courses.

  His teaching efforts have twice been recognized by the student body, as the recipient of the Student’s List letter in 2008 and in 2009. In 2011 he also began teaching courses in instrumental analysis, chromatography, quality analysis and quality control for the Bnai Zion Immigrant Training Program (now the Cooper Union Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers).

  Prof. Savizky has also taught numerous courses in general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and medicinal chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (now the Tandon School of Engineering), the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Columbia University. In addition he has tutored countless high school students for over ten years to help them prepare for SAT Subject tests, Advanced Placement exams, the International Baccalaureate exam, and the Chemistry Olympiad.

  In 2015 Prof. Savizky and The Cooper Union released their first massively open online course (MOOC), in order to help high school students obtain college credit in the subject of chemistry.

  Since 2005, Prof. Savizky has supervised over twenty research projects in a number of areas, including: pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry (synthesis of cholesterol lowering drugs, synthesis of HIV-1 inhibitors, synthesis of asymmetric epoxides, pharmacokinetic profiles of NSAIDs), biochemistry and biophysics (thermodynamic studies of RNA folding, kinetics of enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis), polymer and material science (synthesis and characterization of novel polymers), spectroscopy (development and commercialization of a pattern recognition algorithm for chemical analysis, quantum computing), and even art (analysis of encaustic paint samples).

  These research projects have led to collaborations with a number of local universities such as Polytechnic University (now NYU-Poly), New York University and Columbia University, as well as with the private sector (Process NMR Associates, located in Danbury, CT). Some of this work has been presented at national meetings and conferences, including the 47th Experimental NMR Conference in 2006, the 232nd meeting of the American Chemical Society in 2006, the 47th Annual Eastern Analytical Symposium in 2007 and Pittcon in 2010.

  Furthermore, Prof. Savizky was instrumental in arranging a project funded by Science House that involved spectroscopic analysis of chocolate. This provided Cooper Union’s undergraduate students with an opportunity to carry out sophisticated analyses following their sophomore year. The results of the students’ findings were presented at an event hosted at The Cooper Union, Chocolatefest 2010, and were filmed as a segment for ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.

  For five years, Prof. Savizky has led high school students in real world, cutting-edge chemistry research projects in a laboratory setting under the auspices of The Cooper Union Summer Internship Program for High School Students. He has also participated in various Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) events, such as chemistry experiment demonstrations for elementary school children and annual Alumni Nights.