Vita

Publications

Research Interests

I am interested in mathematically modeling porous media - any material consisting of a solid and one or more other phases. In particular I enjoy modeling swelling porous materials (materials that swell due to the addition of more material, changing the concentration of ions, or the unloading of a pressure load), and porous materials with more than one fluid phase. Examples of swelling porous media include clays (expansive soils), polymers (such as drug-delivery polymers and bio-polymers), and cell membranes. To develop models I use a combination of averaging theory and thermodynamics (exploitation of the second law and manipulating independent variables to relate theory with what is measurable). PhD students have worked on modeling drug-delivery systems involving swelling polymers such as Aleve ( Tessa Weinstein and Keith Wojciechowski), the movement of cilia in lungs (Kannanut Chamsri), and transport of water through multiphase fluid porous media ( Eric Sullivan). I have also contributed in collaborative settings to modeling forest fires, upscaled reactive transport, laminar to turbulent transition of fluid flow, and refugee movement.