Achievement

IGERT Trainee David Boy is a 2009 recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which will begin this fall. David is a member of the CSE IGERT Complex Fluids research focus group. His research focus is in the development of simulations for the effect of a finite sized double layer on fluid flow in order to give us insight into the kinetics of reactions in nanochannels in general, and particularly DNA hybridization. One of David’s goals is to create computational design tools for nanofluidic separation, particularly biospecies separation (e.g. DNA, proteins, and viruses). Towards this goal, David has developed a finite difference simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the Poisson-Nernst-Planck equation for a finite-sized electric double layer. He plans to validate this computational model with the Taylor-Aris dispersion theory.