In thermodynamics, Juliana Boerio-Goates (c.1953-) is an American physical chemist noted for her 2000, two-volume textbook Chemical Thermodynamics, co-authored with J. Bevan Ott. [1] Ott and Goates’ textbook is one of the first two-volume chemical thermodynamics textbooks, since John Butler’s 1928/34 two-volume The Fundamentals of Chemical Thermodynamics.
Education
Goates completed her BA in chemistry in 1975 at Seton Hill University. She completed her MS in 1977 in physical chemistry and PhD in 1979, in physical chemistry, with a dissertation on “Thermodynamic Studies of Reorientiational Motion in Pi-Molecular Compounds”, both at the University of Michigan. [3] Since 1982, Goates has been a physical chemistry professor at Brigham Young University, a university owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Thermodynamics
Since 2001, Goates’ laboratory, which includes four undergraduates and two graduate students, has received about a million dollars, from the US Department of Energy, to look at the thermodynamics of nanoparticles (nanothermodynamics). Much of their work revolves around measuring the heat capacities of materials at low temperatures.
Religion
Goates is very religious. Posted on the door to Boerio-Goates’ office is the eighth verse from Micah, chapter 6:
“And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your god?”
— Bible (100AD), Micah 6:8 (Ѻ), posted above Juliana Goates’ office door (compare: Johannes Wislicenus)
The verse is there, she says, because “that’s how I view things and how I remind myself what I think is important.” In 2001 Boerio-Goates contributed a chapter to the book Finding God at BYU. Her essay, “A Catholic Rediscovers God,” describes how being a minority in the constant company of Latter-day Saint colleagues, students, and neighbors compelled her to examine her own religion more closely and recommit herself to it. In her physical science class, she makes an announcement in the first lecture about her deep Catholic faith, which is typically greeted with an audible gasp. Her studies of chemistry and thermodynamics, supposedly, have instilled in her the belief that the universe has been under the operation of a “divine Creator with an intellect”. [2] The only other known thermodynamics textbook author with such religious enthusiasm is Gordon van Wylen.
References
1. (a) Boerio-Goates, Juliana, and Ott, J., Bevan. (2000). Chemical Thermodynamics: Principles and Applications. New York: Elsevier Academic Press.
(b) Boerio-Goates, Juliana, and Ott, J., Bevan. (2000). Chemical Thermodynamics: Advanced Applications. New York: Elsevier Academic Press.
2. Bergin, Sue. (2006). “Uncommon Chemistry”, Brigham Young University Magazine, Winter.
3. Boerio-Goates, Juliana. (1979). “Thermodynamic Studies of Reorientiational Motion in Pi-Molecular Compounds”, PhD Thesis, University of Michigan.
External links
● Juliana Boerio-Goates (faculty) – Brigham Young University.
● Boerio-Goates, Juliana – WorldCat Identities.