Student Feedback
The following comments are from the Medicinal Chemistry class taught in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, and Spring 2021.
Graduate students:
NH: “I would recommend MedChem to anyone interested in a healthcare adjacent profession (pharma, medical research, drug development, etc.). Dr. Lindsey's course has proven to be one of the most useful and interesting during my time at NC State.”
AG: “MedChem is one of the most interesting courses I've taken so far during my graduate study. I felt this very suitable for a graduate student who wants to dive deeper into medicinal chemistry. I enjoyed the different guest lectures on related topics, which made the course engaging overall. Participating in discussions, engaging in constructive criticism, and questioning the science behind the logic with classmates helped me become a better person, as well as researcher."
HY: “I really enjoyed this class and would recommend it to anyone who is genuinely interested in looking at medicine from a chemist's perspective.”
DC: "I've learnt a lot about drugs and MOA of it. Besides, the course introduced a wide range of diseases."
JS: "Class is more focused on the chemistry aspect of medicinal chemistry (no synthesis). It is well organized to learn the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in an articulate manner. Dr. Lindsey carefully organized lectures to provide a class equivalent to the medical school class. I highly recommend this class if you actually want to learn something and carry it outside of the class."
KS: “This course was fantastic. Dr. Lindsey has advanced knowledge teaching this course. Everything was a well-organized fashion, topics, pictures, and texts. Even I am not a native speaker but what he tough (sic., taught) was highly understandable and reasonable. I would say I could follow him even I did not review the handout before joining the class. Our class last Spring was over Zoom, on some topics, he invited other professors who are experts in those fields to teach us a deep learning experience. Moreover, he was willing to respond to all questions from students. In case he could not immediately answer those in class, he took 1-2 h to give the answer right away after the class through email. Preparing for an exam was not difficult because his handout had a clear explanation, I did not need to find more material, only his materials were enough. Another best thing I loved, since MedChem contains many technical terms, he did provide a summary of important terms I should know before the exam. He was willing to help all students to pass his course with a good grade! That was amazing. You will love this course if you register for it.”
EW: “I greatly appreciate the perspective offered by your course…. I am consistently inspired, and eternally grateful, for the privilege of interacting with those who display such mastery in the art of conviction.”
MM: “I just wanted to reach out to thank you on giving us such a wonderful class. The amount of effort and research you put into all your presentations was exceptional. I really enjoyed this class and listening (as well as re-listening) to your lectures. It allowed me to come back to my chemistry roots, for which I have not been around in over 10 years. It also allowed me to remember why I loved it so much. I hope you continue to give this class because this is something students should get the opportunity to be exposed to. Thanks again!”
YL: “Thank you for allowing me to audit the MedChem lecture that you taught. It’s a great course and I benefited a lot from it. I never thought The Coming Plague would be that soon. You are really a prophet!”
IS: "For which PhD tracks (fields of research) this amazing class would be essential? I think that it is not only for PhD students who do Organic synthesis or Molbio. Even Analytical Chem PhD students which are involved in the research related to medbio will greatly benefit from taking this class.”
NA: "This course gives an amazing broad explanation of the subject so a person walk out of this course with a good understanding of what medicinal chemistry is. (Concerning grades) As long as a person does every assignment to the best of their ability they should be ok in the class. I definitely came out of this course enjoying it rather than thinking it was just another chem elective.”
NM: "This was one of the most useful and interesting classes that I took in grad school if I have to take another class related to the topic I will take it without doubt!”
Undergraduate students:
IK: “Regarding MedChem, it was one of the best courses of my undergraduate career. I got a chance to engage in relevant material, work with others to tackle real problems and learn about one of the most valuable and important applications of chemistry in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Dr. Lindsey is one of the most passionate and engaging professors I've had, and I could tell that MedChem was the pedagogical embodiment of that passion. It was a difficult class, but unlike many other undergraduate courses I felt thoroughly respected and treated as an adult. I wish more classes were assembled and conducted with the same level of care and attention.”
Anonymous: “I love Dr. Lindsey as an instructor. I had him for sophomore organic and jumped at the opportunity to have class with him again. The jokes he made in class or slipped into the slides for us to discover on our own while studying were a joy to behold. The stories he imparted were powerful and I loved them all…. As for the course, it was interesting. I loved the vocab lists and case studies and memorizing chemical structures. I liked finding out how the highlighted diseases work and what treatments are available. Lectures moved swiftly. I learned that it was better to take minimal notes during lecture in order to have the time to absorb the information as it flew at me, but with the information-packed slides, I was able to amend my sketchy notes later to capture the essence of the lecture. From another professor, this course would probably be so-so, but with Dr. Lindsey it's like the Magic School Bus.... Homework and exam policies were reasonable. The schedule amendments throughout the semester were as well. When I took sophomore organic with Dr. Lindsey, that class was my haven of sanity. This class did not quite reach that level, but it was a joy to learn from Dr. Lindsey again. I honestly don't envision myself going into the biochem or medical sides of chemistry in my career, but Dr. Lindsey opened that door for me to peek in with this class, and left it ajar for me when the class was done. So many other professors either guard the door steadfastly (and ruin your sanity as you try to sneak a peek) or try to shove you in and lock the door behind you. Dr. Lindsey is not like that at all and that's one of the reasons I hold Dr. Lindsey in such high regard. You never know where the future will take you, so what's the point in limiting."
Anonymous: “The course covers a lot of material and I would like to see more emphasis on what will be tested on."
Anonymous: "Awesome professor and very dedicated with his presentation. Very well prepared.”
Anonymous: “Every things online were very good. All materials or assignment were assessible easily and the due date of assignment could be at night by uploading. 2. The instructor's lecturing skill was so good and clear explanation with excellent and easy to follow slides. This course was complex, speaking at medium speed helped me to digest what he said. 3. The most favorable of this course is that there is summary part at the end of each lesson. It was helpful to understand a whole topic and help me to organize what I just learnt.”
Anonymous: “The course could be improved by summarizing what will be on the test. Having 100+ possible vocab words is almost impossible to learn.”
CR: “The level of detail in this course was perfect and the way the material was presented was always interesting, and I genuinely think about the content on a frequent basis, this course gave me more lastly knowledge than most courses I've taken besides orgo which I also have a great deal of lasting knowledge from, the depth of knowledge and vocab words for each test was not unreasonable, I had no trouble memorizing all of them.”
CR: "The Synopses were very valuable study tools. The exams were very fair and I enjoyed the in class and take home format."
CR: "I loved the background information in this course! I am a huge history buff so to bring medicine back to social issues and thinking about the butterfly effect of how diseases have shaped our society is extremely interesting, I had no idea about the history of tuberculosis or neglected tropical diseases, very interesting.”
CR: "Orgo 1 and 2 gave me all the background knowledge I needed to understand how reactions we saw would proceed mechanistically, it also helped a lot with understanding binding sites for drugs. Biochem covers everything a student would need to know to be prepared for med chem!"
CR: "Yeah, students need to understand it is similar in content and work load to a med school class but that shouldn't put them off the course. I recommend it to many of my chem major friends. Students should expect to need to put effort in to do well but the content shouldn't be completely out of their breadth of knowledge or ability to learn."
MW: "I have gained knowledge of diseases and the impact of public health on treatments from this course. It was helpful to learn from the chemistry perspective which I hope to be of use as I grow into my career (I am now getting my MPH with a leadership in practice concentration)."