With their Trinity careers coming to a close, several senior chemistry and biochemistry majors approached their department last fall about collaborating with faculty members one last time in a seminar on wine. Michelle Kovarik, assistant professor of chemistry, volunteered to help coordinate the seminar, a 0.5 credit independent study, and proposed a “journal club” course.

Their semester started with an introduction to studying wine: librarian Jennifer van Sickle introduced the seminar to the resources for researching the chemistry of wine, sommelier Marshall Bass led a wine-tasting seminar, and the students viewed a video on the basics of wine chemistry.

The group meets weekly, and topics are driven largely by students. Each week, a student selects a peer-reviewed article about the chemistry of wine and works with a faculty sponsor to help answer questions about the article and facilitate discussion among the students. Topics have ranged from the physical chemistry of bubbles in champagne to the synthesis of proanthocyanidins. Because the subjects include many subdisciplines of chemistry, several faculty members have worked with the students.

Those who have served as faculty sponsors of student presentations are Richard Prigodich, dean of academic planning and professor of chemistry; Cheyenne Brindle, assistant professor of chemistry; Timothy Curran, professor of chemistry; Janet Morrison, principal lecturer in chemistry; and Maria Krisch, assistant professor of chemistry. Other faculty who have participated are Bill Church, associate professor of chemistry and neuroscience, and Denise Rau, laboratory coordinator and lecturer in chemistry.

Following each student presentation, the group tastes a series of wines and compares tasting notes. But this is far more than a wine-tasting course; the students are studying serious chemistry, and the faculty members are putting the students’ chemistry knowledge to the test.

By all accounts, the seminar has been a great success. The seniors are taking full advantage of their last experience as students with the Chemistry Department faculty. Both students and faculty have enjoyed bringing their own interests and expertise to the group while they collaborate and learn, Kovarik says.

“We have wonderful faculty-student interaction,” she adds, “since we as faculty are often learning at the same time.”