Spring 2027

Biophysical Spectroscopy

Biophysical Spectroscopy covers principles and applications of spectroscopic and microscopy methods used to solve biological problems at the atomic and molecular level.

offering recorded2–3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Martin Zanni4.0/5

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Silvia Cavagnero

Students reported needing to study on evenings and weekends to keep up with the material, which involved switching between multiple resources weekly.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Graduate/professional standing

  • Graduate/professional standing
CHEM 668

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Graduate/professional standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.01/5 from 137 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

SILVIA CAVAGNERO is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2015, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 300

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Silvia Cavagnero

The course surveys conventional and cutting-edge spectroscopy techniques, though students found the breadth sometimes limited the depth of understanding.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.67 GPA, 76.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.87 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.74 GPA, 90.3% A/AB (n=31 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Silvia Cavagnero

Students reported needing to study on evenings and weekends to keep up with the material, which involved switching between multiple resources weekly.

Past student reviews · Silvia Cavagnero

One student noted the class had no exams, while others described the instructor as responsive and helpful during office hours.

Topics

  • Electronic absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy
  • Circular dichroism and light scattering
  • Fluorescence microscopy
  • Multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance and electron spin resonance

Skills

  • Apply spectroscopic and microscopy methods to solve biological problems at the atomic and molecular level.
  • Understand techniques including electronic absorption, fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism, light scattering, fluorescence microscopy, multidimensional NMR, and ESR.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
CHEM 668 · Spring 2027

Biophysical Spectroscopy

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:224:023675",
    "course_id": "CHEM 668",
    "course_uid": "course_c2ae6c974269b52e4c300212",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023675",
    "source_subject_id": "224",
    "title": "Biophysical Spectroscopy",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-29

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "cf29ea741e10f7b7395d8011ec694b25d0ed6204ee5fcaa964ae1c7b30c1088d",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}