Symmetry and Group Theory Course | Chemistry Postgraduate | IISER Pune
Course Details
| Exam Registration | 22 |
|---|---|
| Course Status | Ongoing |
| Course Type | Core |
| Language | English |
| Duration | 12 weeks |
| Categories | Chemistry |
| Credit Points | 3 |
| Level | Postgraduate |
| Start Date | 19 Jan 2026 |
| End Date | 10 Apr 2026 |
| Enrollment Ends | 02 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Registration Ends | 20 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Date | 18 Apr 2026 IST |
| NCrF Level | 4.5 — 8.0 |
Unlocking the Secrets of Molecules: A Deep Dive into Symmetry and Group Theory
For postgraduate students in Chemistry, understanding the elegant language of symmetry is not just an academic exercise—it's a powerful tool that unlocks the secrets of molecular structure, properties, and reactivity. We are pleased to highlight an in-depth 12-week course on Symmetry and Group Theory, expertly taught by Prof. Jeetender Chugh of IISER Pune, designed to provide a rigorous and intuitive grasp of this fundamental topic.
Meet Your Instructor: Prof. Jeetender Chugh
Prof. Chugh brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique teaching philosophy to this course. With an M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Delhi and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from TIFR Mumbai, his research foundation is in NMR Spectroscopy. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, USA, he joined IISER Pune in 2013. His teaching experience spans various theory and lab courses, including this very Symmetry and Group Theory course since 2017.
Unique Teaching Methodology: Prof. Chugh employs a dynamic, whiteboard-based teaching style with voice-over and video inset. This approach is crucial for this subject, as it allows students to clearly see how to draw symmetry elements, perform operations, and follow derivations in real-time, fostering a deeper understanding than pre-drawn slides could provide.
Course Overview and Objectives
This postgraduate-level course aims to help students recognize symmetry in molecules and comprehend its profound role in chemistry. The key objectives are to explore symmetry's role in:
- (A) Determining molecular properties like optical activity and dipole moment.
- (B) Classifying and assigning nomenclature to molecules, molecular states, and motions.
- (C) Simplifying the application of quantum mechanics to molecular systems.
- (D) Determining spectroscopic selection rules based on molecular symmetry.
The course offers an in-depth appreciation of how group theory, applied to molecular symmetry, has far-reaching consequences across chemical disciplines.
Intended Audience and Prerequisites
This course is ideally suited for:
- 3rd Year BS-MS Students
- 1st Year M.Sc. Students with a Chemistry major
- 1st Year Chemistry Ph.D. Students
Prerequisites: A solid foundation in General Physical Chemistry and the Fundamentals of Spectroscopy is recommended to fully benefit from the course material.
Detailed 12-Week Course Layout
| Week | Topics Covered |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introduction; Symmetry and Parity Operator; Symmetry Elements and Operations |
| Week 2 | Symmetry Elements and Operations (cont.); Coordinate System; Product of Symmetry Operations |
| Week 3 | Symmetry Point Groups; Schönflies Notations; Point Group Determination; Applications: Predicting Dipole Moment & Optical Activity |
| Week 4 | Definition of Group, Sub-group, Class; Group Multiplication Tables; Matrix Representation of Symmetry Operations |
| Week 5 | Reducible, Equivalent, and Irreducible Representations; The Great Orthogonality Theorem and its Corollaries |
| Week 6 | Irreducible Representations using the Theorem; Constructing Character Tables; Mulliken Symbols |
| Week 7 | Representations of Cyclic Groups; Application to Quantum Mechanics; Degenerate Eigenfunctions; Direct Product of Representations |
| Week 8 | Applications of Direct Product; Symmetry Adapted Linear Combinations (SALCs) |
| Week 9 | Projection Operator and SALCs; Symmetry and Chemical Bonding; Valence Bond Theory |
| Week 10 | Localized and Delocalized Molecular Orbital Theory; Ascent and Descent in Symmetry |
| Week 11 | Crystal Field Theory; Jahn-Teller Distortion; Introduction to Spectroscopy; Rotational Spectroscopy |
| Week 12 | Vibrational & Raman Spectroscopy; Atomic Motions; Symmetry of Normal Modes; Visualizing Vibrations; Spectral Transition Probabilities |
Recommended Textbooks
To supplement the lectures, students are encouraged to refer to these classic texts:
- Chemical Applications of Group Theory by F. A. Cotton (Wiley Interscience)
- Molecular Symmetry & Group Theory by R. L. Carter (John Wiley & Sons)
- Symmetry and Spectroscopy by D. C. Harris and M. D. Bertolucci (Dover)
- Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics by Michael Tinkham (Dover)
Why This Course is Essential
Symmetry and Group Theory form the backbone of modern chemical analysis. This course bridges the gap between abstract mathematical concepts and their tangible chemical applications—from predicting whether a molecule will rotate plane-polarized light to understanding the allowed transitions in an IR or Raman spectrum. Under the guidance of Prof. Chugh, students will not only learn to manipulate character tables but will also develop the intuition to apply symmetry principles as a powerful problem-solving tool in their future research and careers in chemistry.
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