Magritek, a leading provider of compact NMR and MRI instruments, reports on how Yale-NUS College in Singapore is applying the Spinsolve Benchtop NMR spectrometer in the teaching program of undergraduate chemists. 

The teaching laboratories at Yale-NUS College in Singapore have recently installed new research-grade instrumentation to allow students to gain hands-on experience and exposure to different methods of sample analysis. The new equipment is generally more advanced than standard teaching tools, offering undergraduates the opportunity to conduct their own independent research studies. With their intended dual use for both teaching and research, the laboratories are an extension to the research capabilities for both faculty and students. 

Dr Stanislav Presolski is an assistant professor in chemistry at Yale-NUS. While in research, his goals are to harness his synthetic and physical-organic chemistry experience in leading a research group of undergraduates, who will design, prepare and deploy operationally simple, photo-switchable catalytic molecules, it is in the area of teaching techniques to students where he is taking a fresh approach. As he describes his work teaching NMR, he says “We have designed our science classes in a way that makes them fairly indistinguishable from actual research.” 

It has had a positive effect on students too. Isaac Lee (Class of 2019) recently took one of Dr Presolski's classes in the newly furbished laboratories and had the opportunity to use the Magritek Spinsolve 60 MHz Carbon NMR. He said: “It’s different from just learning about it and to just see it in use in the laboratories. Our hands-on experience has really helped me see that science is made in the present and not just something discovered long ago. We are constantly reaffirming it.” 

Dr Presolski's classes are quite small – fewer than 18 students per class. This means that professors are able to give tailored instruction to their students and provide the key skills needed to properly use the scientific equipment. “You are taught not only how to operate the machines, but also the physical principles behind the measurements and ways to interpret the data without reliance on the default software,” explained Dr Presolski. 

Magritek’s Spinsolve benchtop NMR spectrometer is supplied worldwide to academics in teaching and research as a convenient analytical NMR instrument for use in the lab. It is also supplied to industry for research and reaction monitoring through to quality control use. 

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