Spring 2001 Departmental Distinguished
Seminar Series
Hans Ziock
The Scale of the Carbon Dioxide Issue
January 26, 2001
Dr. Ziock works with the Geology/Geochemistry Group at Los Alamos
National Laboratory, New Mexico, searching for solutions to the
carbon dioxide issue. He presented a scenario in which developing
countries achieve per capita energy consumption equivalent to
that of the more developed nations. Dr. Ziock theorizes that in
this situation, world carbon consumption would go up by a factor
of 10. He says that there has already been a 30% increase in atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels since the beginning of the industrial age;
and any proposed solutions to the carbon dioxide issue must address
the scale of the issue, involve minimal energy consumption and
environmental impact, and offer an essentially permanent solution,
all at a low cost. Dr. Ziock's visit was hosted by Dr. Douglas
Harrison.
Kara McCloskey
Theoretical and Experimental Characterization of Magnetophoretic
Mobility
February 2, 2001
Dr. McCloskey's work at Ohio State University focuses on magnetic
cell separation technology, a technique used to enrich or deplete
specific cells from a heterogeneous cell population. A methodology
and mathematical theory have been successfully developed which
address the labeling and parameters controlling the magnetophoretic
mobility of an immunomagnetically labeled cell. The practical
application of Dr. McCloskey's research will benefit tissue engineering,
especially with cell separation strategies that will improve the
success of tissue vascularization as a method of repairing damaged
tissue. Dr. McCloskey's visit was hosted by Dr. K.T. Valsaraj.
Joe Qin
Subspace Approaches to Dynamic Modeling and Fault Diagnosis
April 6, 2001
Dr. Qin is working on recent developments in subspace approaches
for building general dynamic models from process data at the University
of Texas-Austin. A key step in these applications, he says, is
to build accurate dynamic models, using principal component analysis.
Dr. Qin also addressed detecting and identifying sensor faults
using subspace models under dynamic operations, and how this method
can be used for sensor validation for an industrial process. Dr.
Qin's visit was hosted by Dr. Michael Henson.
Ole Hassager
Polymer Fluid Mechanics
April 9, 2001
Dr. Ole Hassager talks about polymer fluid mechanics
According to Dr. Hassager, progress in polymer fluid mechanics
requires knowledge of theoretical and experimental rheology, structural
theories, numerical methods and several other disciplines. He
is working on possible future applications of polymer fluids at
the Denmark Technical University in Copenhagen, Denmark. This
is a particularly challenging field, as polymeric fluids show
at the same time both viscous and elastic properties. Dr. Hassager's
visit was hosted by Dr. Martin Hjortsø
Jonathan Higdon
Large Scale Hydrodynamic Simulation of Multiphase Flows:
Foams and Emulsions
April 20, 2001
Dr. Higdon's most recent work at the University of Illinois focuses
on the multiphase flows of emulsions and foams. Certain conditions
are encountered in a wide range of industrial processes, in manufacturing,
in enhanced oil recovery and in environmental remediation for
ground water contamination. However, Dr. Higdon says that many
of these multiphase systems are complex and defy simple modeling
efforts and can only be analyzed through experiment or computer
simulation. In his efforts, he says he was able to observe a number
of interesting phenomena including shear thinning, shear thickening,
phase segregation and disorder-order transitions. Dr. Higdon's
visit was hosted by Dr. Karsten Thompson.
Judy Wornat
Formation Mechanisms of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
from Aromatic Fuels
May 11, 2001
PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and soot are of particular
health and environmental concerns, since many of these types of
pollutants are known to be mutagenic or carcinogenic.
Dr. Wornat and her colleagues in the Department of Mechanical
& Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University are investigating
the reaction mechanisms responsible for PAH formation from aromatic
fuels such as coal, wood, and petroleum-based liquid fuels. She
presented two types of the reaction mechanisms that the researchers
have discovered to be at work - the first, involving combination
of aryl species and cyclodehydrogenation; and the second, ring
fragmentation and combination of fragment species. Dr. Wornat's
visit was hosted by Dr. Arthur Sterling.
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