Welcome to CBE 503, a graduate-level thermodynamics course.  

Time and place

There are usually two lectures and a precept per week; the course meets on Mon., Wed. and Fri. from 10:30 - 11:50 am in EQuad A224.

Books

The required textbook for the course is: M. S. Shell, "Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics: An Integrated Approach," Cambridge U. Press (2015). [abbreviated as "MSS"]

Other potentially useful books are given below. There is no need to purchase any of them.

Problem sets [PS]

Problem set assignments and other course-related material will be posted on Canvas. Please submit a clear scanned copy of the completed problem sets through Gradescope as indicated on the schedule.

Grading

The grade for the course will be based on the two midterms (60%), the problem sets (30%), and a brief individual oral evaluation (10%).

Staff

Instructor: Thanos Panagiotopoulos (azp@); Office hours: Fri. 3-4 pm, A317 [Zoom].
TA: Casey Jordan (cj7159@); Office hours: Mon. TBA pm, G107

Tentative Course Syllabus [as of 8/27/2025]

Lec.#

Date

Topic(s)

 MSS Reading PS - submit by 6 pm
1 Wed 9/3 Equilibrium and Entropy Ch. 2
2 Fri 9/5 Energy and Microstates Ch. 3
Mon 9/8 Precept # 1
3 Wed 9/10 Maximum Entropy principle Ch. 4

PS1
4 Fri 9/12 Fundamental Equation, 1st and 2nd Laws Ch. 5
Mon 9/15 Precept # 2
5 Wed 9/17 1st and 2nd Laws (cont.) Ch. 6

PS2
6 Fri 9/19 Legendre Transformations Ch. 7, notes

Mon 9/22 Precept # 3
7 Wed 9/24 Measurable properties Ch. 8, notes

PS3
8 Fri 9/26 Gases Ch. 9
Mon 9/29 Precept # 4
9 Wed 10/1 Phase Equilibrium Ch. 10

PS4
10 Fri 10/3 Stability [see movie1, movie2] Ch. 11
Mon 10/6 Review for MidTerm I Ch. 1 - 9
Wed 10/8 MidTerm I (1.5 hrs, in class) Ch. 1 - 9
11 Fri 10/10 Solutions: Fundamentals Ch. 12
12 Mon 10/20 Solutions (cont.) Ch. 12
13 Wed 10/22 Solutions: Advanced § 13.7+8
Fri 10/24 No class - Graduate Student Symposium
14 Mon 10/27 Solids Ch. 14
Wed 10/29 Precept # 5

PS5
15 Fri 10/31 Canonical Partition Function Ch. 16
16 Mon 11/3 Fluctuations Ch. 17
17 Wed 11/5 Distribution Functions Notes
18 Fri 11/7 Classical Systems Ch. 18
Mon 11/10 Precept # 6
19 Wed 11/12 Classical Systems (cont.) Ch. 18

PS6
20 Fri 11/14 Other Ensembles Ch. 19
21 Mon 11/17 Reaction Equilibria Ch. 20
Wed 11/19 Precept # 7
22 Fri 11/21 Monte Carlo Methods Ch. 22

PS7
23 Mon 11/24 Monte Carlo Methods (cont.) Ch. 22
24 Tue 11/25 Force Fields and Molecular Dynamics Ch. 22
Mon 12/1 Precept # 8
25 Wed 12/3 Review for MidTerm II Ch. 10 - 22

PS8
  Mon 12/8 MidTerm II (1.5 hrs, in class) Ch. 10 - 22