Go For It

In the Go household, everyday chores frequently turned into science experiments. 

Tony Go recalls one afternoon mowing the lawn with his father, Ting Sin, and the acidic smell of the grass clippings several hours later. These were the types of observations Tim and Tony would bring to their dad, who nurtured their curiosity with explanations and follow-up questions. On that particular day, he explained to Tony that the smell was the fermentation process happening in their own yard. Tony’s next school science project? Fermenting grass into alcohol. 

With both parents in the petrochemical industry, it’s no wonder science was part of everyday life for Tim and Tony Go. And it’s no surprise the brothers and University of Texas at Austin graduates would go on to become chemical engineers themselves. Now, Tim and his wife Janice are honoring the family legacy with a gift to future generations of chemical engineers, who will study at the new Autry C. Stephens Engineering Discovery Building. 

Curiosity Runs in the Family 

Tim and Tony lit up when asked about their father, Ting Sin Go, who instilled in them a love of science and solving everyday problems through the scientific method.  

Ting Sin certainly led by example. Tony, the older and more soft-spoken of the brothers, laughed as he remembered how their dad was always tinkering with rubber bands and paper clips to fix problems around the house. 

“But that’s how our whole life was, right? He was always coming up with solutions and using his inherent engineering ability to solve problems,” Tony said. “He inspired [us] to also want be engineers.” 

Their father grew up in the Philippines, and he and his sister, a chemist, were the first in their family to go to university. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1959 to pursue his graduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota. There, he reconnected with Caridad Yao, a friend from home pursuing chemistry. The two married in 1960. 

Ting Sin started his career at a small Minnesota refinery and would eventually retire as Vice President of Baker Petrolite in 2000. As a chemist, Caridad would also build her career in the petrochemical field, researching white oils for Arco and Lyondell.  

Their father’s career in chemical treatment relocated the family every few years, moving from Minnesota to St. Louis to New Jersey, until ultimately landing the Gos in the energy capital of the world—Houston, Texas.  

Living there for their high school years set both Tim and Tony on a trajectory that felt like fate.  

Gone to Texas 

New to Texas, Tim and Tony’s older sister Emily had no idea what she was getting into when she accepted her offer to study computer science at UT. Little did she know, the whole family would soon bleed burnt orange. She paved the way as the first of now 12 Longhorns and counting in the extended Go family. 

When their time came to choose a college, Tony and Tim were well-aware of UT and the excellent engineering program just a few hours away, and confident in their choice of major—chemical engineering, just like their dad.  

Tony accepted his offer to UT, and two years later, Tim followed suit.  

“If we want to do chemical engineering, there’s a top five program just in our backyard that has probably one of the best cost profiles along with it, especially back then,” Tim said. 

Neither of their parents pressured them to follow in their footsteps, however. In fact, Ting Sin initially tried to persuade his youngest son to study medicine instead. But Tim’s temporary pre-med track came to a painless end after his first summer internship: hands-on work for Arco in Anchorage, Alaska. There was no going back. When he committed fully to chemical engineering, though, his dad understood. He knew that that seemingly magnetic pull toward engineering was inevitable—it ran in the family.  

“My dad said he wanted a doctor, but in the end, I think he was happier that Tony and I were in the same field—that we could share experiences and share contacts,” Tim reflected.  

All of Tim’s and two of Tony’s kids went to UT. A third generation of the family legacy kicked off when Tim’s son Jonathan married his partner Christy, a UT chemical engineering graduate. 

When asked about the next generation, Tim scrambled to show off his newest gift for the grandkids—a “chemical engineering for babies” board book. Both he and Tony plan to continue their no-pressure approach to cultivating a fourth generation. But “there’s still hope that the legacy will continue,” Tim assured us.  

Learning from the Best 

Once the brothers arrived on the Forty Acres, the experience did not disappoint. Both Tim and Tony learned from experts who are now iconic names in Texas Engineering, like professors Howard Rase and John J. McKetta. They can confirm firsthand that they are more than deserving of the scholarships and departments named for them.  

“I had McKetta, I had Rase, I had all the pillars that all the buildings are named after,” Tony said. “They were my professors, and they didn’t let me down.” 

Tim was a grader for McKetta. Having sat through the class twice, he reflected on the lessons that stayed with him throughout his career. Most importantly: a chemical engineer’s greatest asset is not the ability to collect data but rather to analyze that data and draw meaningful conclusions. 

“If you ever had the privilege of being able to sit in one of his classes, he was trying to make the students think on their feet,” Tim said. “And what I didn’t realize at the time was that was the most important training that you could get in today’s world, even as long ago as McKetta was teaching. It’s easy to get bogged down in trying to find the data without realizing, no, the real trick is taking the data and then doing something with it.” 

A Go-Go Industry 

Tim retired earlier this year after serving as CEO at HF Sinclair and Calumet, and Tony is currently the chief engineer for the Transformational Technology Platform at ExxonMobil. 

The industry has evolved since they entered the workforce. In the ‘80s, the field centered on oil and gas as the predominant form of energy. The decades since have seen the emergence of renewable and alternative options. The challenge now, Tim explains, is how to process energy in any form efficiently, reliably and at scale. 

“This isn’t a question of which type of energy should we process to truly meet the needs of the global demand for energy,” Tim said. “It’s an all of the above story…the world still needs cheap, affordable energy, and chemical engineers are needed to help bring that to the rest of the world. Energy is what increases the standard of living for all societies.”  

The Go Office 

With the opening of the new Autry C. Stephens Engineering Discovery Building, Tim and his wife, Janice, felt inspired to give back to the school that shaped the family. When the doors open in September, the chemical engineering department chair’s office will be named for the Gos, accompanied by a plaque that the brothers dedicated to their late father, the start of it all. 

As the children of immigrants with no extended family in the U.S., Tim and Tony looked up to their parents. “Mom and Dad were our sole role models and our sole family as we were growing up,” Tim said.  

They emphasized that their dad was their hero, a message now memorialized for years to come.  

As the plaque so perfectly summarizes his mantra, “Work hard, bet on yourself, and go for it!”

And yes, we can confirm the pun is intentional.