Isamu Kusaka simplifies equilibrium statistical mechanics with new book
Among the large number of textbooks on statistical mechanics that exist today, few are truly accessible without a substantial background in physics. Although various applications of statistical mechanics are often used in solving engineering problems, learning this subject can be a daunting task for the typical engineer.
A new book by Isamu Kusaka entitled “Statistical Mechanics for Engineers” (2015, 1st ed., Springer) aims to change this scendario.
Equilibrium statistical mechanics provides a molecular level foundation of thermodynamics, and has been used to explain thermodynamic behavior of macroscopic systems from a molecular level perspective. Using the method of statistical mechanics, one can, in principle, predict various thermodynamic properties from the first principle describing the interaction among molecules, whereas in classical thermodynamics, the only available option is to measure and tabulate these quantities for each material of interest. Statistical mechanics also provides microscopic information that is inaccessible even experimentally. It applies equally well to microscopic systems, whose proper description by means of classical thermodynamics proves conceptually challenging.
Kusaka's book, which took him 11 years to complete, will be of particular interest to advanced undergraduate and graduate engineering students. "Statistical Mechanics for Engineers" provides a gentle introduction to equilibrium statistical mechanics that can help engineers use various computational tools for materials research in a more meaningful way due to better understanding the underlying principle of statistical mechanics.
Meant for serious students who feel reasonably comfortable with calculus but who do not have prior exposure to quantum mechanics or to classical mechanics beyond Newton's equations of motion, readers who approach this subject for the first time without a solid background in classical and quantum mechanics will develop a basic level of understanding which will prepare them in the pursuit of more specialized topics. The book's approach is unique in that classical mechanical formulation takes center stage.
Kusaka was initially inspired to write the book in observance of the lack of textbooks on the subject which were comprehensible to his graduate students. Then, while sitting in courses taught by colleague Martin Feinberg, who received the university's highest teaching honor (Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching) last year, Kusaka saw how clearly various difficult concepts were slowly and methodically developed so that anyone who wanted to understand the material could do so. Kusaka emulated this method and wrote down his argument, eliminated any ambiguities and inconsistencies, and repeated the process over many iterations until the book started to look interesting enough to share with a larger audience, and Springer agreed to publish it.
The book is available through Springer as well as Amazon.
Professor Kusaka joined the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University in 2000. His current research interests include transport phenomena in nano scale systems.
