2017 International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes

In July 2017, I was very honored to be given a chance to present at the International Congress on Membrane and Membrane Processes (ICOM). ICOM is a preeminent global event for the membrane science and engineering community. The goal was to focus on “Enabling Membrane Technology” to overcome the challenges to replace conventional technology in separations, energy production and other applications.

The congress took place in San Francisco, California. Due to its splendid reputation, it has attracted more than 1000 attendees from all over the world including the U.S, China, South Korea, Japan, various European countries and so on.

My advisor Dr.Ladner, three of my coworkers Steven, Anna and Jaime, and our group member Erin all attended this conference. We got a chance to experience this event and took some precious pictures.

During this conference, I presented my research which is titled “CFD Simulation of Fluid and Fouling Profiles for Membranes with Engineered Surface Features: Finding Patterns with the Least Concentration Polarization”. My research focused on using CFD to simulate membrane systems and try to compare and contrast concentration polarization situations among different patterns. The work is part of our NSF-funded project, “DMREF: An integrated multiscale modeling and experimental approach to design fouling-resistant membranes.”  This presentation has gained some valuable feedback from professors and experts in our field, thus has inspired me a lot in my future research directions.

One memorable part of this conference is that I got to meet some authors in person who have written well-known papers in journals such as Desalination, Journal of Membrane Science, and so on. As a young phD student, I realize that I always need to work hard on my research, improve my communicating skills, and eventually become a membrane modeling professional.