Alumna
Mary Jo Biddy
Education
- B.Sc., Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, 2000
- Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006
Research
My research interest lies in the molecular simulation of complex fluids. With the rapidly increasing power of computers and the continued improvement of molecular modeling algorithms and methods, molecular simulations are becoming a commonplace tool in advanced chemical engineering research. Molecular simulations provide an ideal complement to laboratory research. A single simulation can measure essentially all of the physical properties of interest, whereas it would take many experiments to accomplish the same goal. For example, rather than determining only the miscibility of two polymers, one can simultaneously determine the density, viscosity, vapor pressure, heat of solution, and heat of vaporization just to name a few properties. Molecular modeling also provides atomic level structural information, thereby providing insight as to how the chemicals interact and what molecular characteristics are critical to the observed behavior. For instance, polymer miscibility may be better understood when the strength of hydrogen bonding between specific atoms on the molecules can be observed and quantified. Simulation techniques add the flexibility of studying any molecule without the expense of chemically synthesizing a pure sample for analysis. They can, therefore, serve as a guide to experiments before considerable time and money are spent on a specific system. Simulations of large molecules, however, require large amounts of computer time. For example, simulations of polymeric blends require months to calculate on supercomputers. By developing more advanced algorithms and methods and exploiting specific computer architectures, the required simulation time can be reduced by orders of magnitude. The greatest opportunity in my research lies in the creation of simulation programs which will become an effective research tool. Not only will these programs allow the use of simulations with greater frequency to guide experimental work, but more complex systems also can be explored with ease.
Publication
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Contact
Dr. Mary Jo Biddy
BP America Inc.
Naperville, IL
U.S.A.
