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Cougar Queries: "How can you be a Mormon and a scientist? It's easy." - BYU NewsSkip to main content
Cougar Queries: "How can you be a Mormon and a scientist? It's easy."
July 12, 2015
BYU Devotional with Barry Willardson
Tuesday, July 14
11:05 a.m.
Watch/Listen/Read: BYUtv, BYUtv.org (and archived for on-demand streaming), KBYU-TV 11, Classical 89 FM, BYU Radio, and will be archived on speeches.byu.edu.
Barry Willardson, BYU professor of chemistry, will deliver the BYU Devotional address this week. He will focus on the purpose of our existence upon the earth in a talk titled: "Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth."
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Name: Barry Willardson
BYU employee since: 1996
My job at BYU is... teaching biochemistry and doing research
Currently I'm working on... how cells respond to hormones, neurotransmitters and growth factors.
Understanding how living things work sparked my interest in my field.
I get most excited about my work when... an experiment shows something significant that was not expected.
When I tell people I work for BYU, they often ask... "How can you be a Mormon and a scientist?" I tell them, "It's easy."
My favorite lecture to teach is... cell signaling.
What makes teaching the greatest job in the world is... when a student says, "This is fascinating stuff."
My favorite spot on campus is... the waterfall by the new Life Sciences building.
My most cherished memory at BYU was when... I asked my wife out on our first date walking between the Maeser building and the Brimhall building.
My favorite Cougar athletes are... Camry Godfrey Willardson and Mitch Matthews.
On Saturday mornings you'll find me... fishing, if I'm lucky.
I'm most looking forward to... getting my grant renewed.
Cougar Queries is a series profiling BYU employees by asking them a few simple questions about their work, interests and life. Know of another Cougar we should feature? Email Emily Hellewell.
Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, spoke to BYU students and employees at the Marriott Center in this week’s forum address. He emphasized the importance of self-improvement through the pursuit of virtue.
BYU robotics experts are building a humanoid robot that can impressively lift large and unwieldy objects such as ladders, kayaks, car tires, chairs, and heavy boxes. And it does so safely because its whole structure is flexible.