The Faculty Lecture Series presents: Environmental Computational Physics

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Teri L. Skillman-Kashyap, (808) 956-8688
Events & Communications Coordinator, Library Services
Posted: Feb 22, 2011

Water spickets
Water spickets
The third lecture in the Spring 2011 Faculty Lecture Series, Environmental Computational Physics, will be held on Friday, March 11, in UH Mānoa's Hamilton Library’s Room 301 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Admission is free and refreshments will be provided. The doors open at 3:15 p.m.
 
Associate professor Albert S. Kim of the civil and environmental engineering department, will give a talk that focuses on the computational aspect of environmental engineering using fundamental theoretical physics. Practical examples include daily-life probability questions.
 
Environmental engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to improve the environment and environmental resources such as food, energy, and water. It is a multi-disciplinary study area that requires broad knowledge in natural phenomena and specific engineering processes. As A. Einstein implied, computers significantly contribute to 21st century science and technology.
 
When a single computational task requires enormous amount of computational resource such as weather forecasting, one can use many PCs (processors or cores) assigning partial jobs to worker processors. One can either solve much large problems spending the same amount of time, or solve the same problem spending a much shorter time. Computational physics/engineering is a research area of science and engineering disciplines including environmental engineering, which deals with a high degree of uncertainties in large natural environment.  
 
Kim's areas of research interest are environmental soft matter physics: theory and simulations, computational environmental engineering, membrane separation processes, and hydrodynamics of colloids, biocolloids, and fractal aggregates. Kim earned his doctorate in civil and environmental engineering in 2000 and his MS in civil and environmental engineering in 1997 from the University of California, Los Angeles.
 
The Faculty Lecture Series is presented by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, the Office of Research Relations, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library.