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Donald L Koch

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  • Donald L Koch
  • Dept: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
  • Title: Professor
  • Address: 250 Olin Hall
  • Phone: 607 255-3484
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Biography

Donald Koch received his BS in chemical engineering and BA in history from Case Western Reserve University in 1981 and his PhD in chemical engineering from the Massachuesetts Institutute of Technology in 1986. After a year of postdoctoral study at DAMTP in Cambridge University, he joined the School of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University where he is now a full professor. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, coauthor of over 100 scientific publications in the fields of particulate and multiphase flow, and has supervised 18 PhD students.

Research Interests

Rheology and average transport processes in particle suspensions, porous media, micro- and nano-structured materials. Particle-filled polymeric materials. Solvent-free nanoparticle fluids. Aggregation processes in colloids and aerosols. Non-continuum gas flows and reactions. Collective behavior of swimming micro-organisms. Convective heat and mass transfer in particulate systems. Two-way coupling in particle-laden turbulent gas flows. Geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide. Geothermal energy extraction.

Teaching Interests

Fluid Mechanics; Heat and mass transport; Colloid and Aerosol Science.

Service Interests

Kaust-CU Center for Energy and Sustainability: Co-Thrust leader for CO2 Capture and Conversion

Earth Energy IGERT co-PI

Developed a website on bacterial swimming for outreach to high school students.

 

Selected Publications

  • Singh, John P., Sourav Padhya, Eric Shaqfeh, Donald L Koch. 2012. "Flow of power-law fluids in fixed beds of cylinders or spheres." Journal of Fluid Mechanics 713: 491-527.
  • Sundararajan, P., J. D. Kirtland, Donald L. Koch, A. D Stroock. 2012. "Impact of chaos and Brownian diffusion on irreversibility in Stokes flows." Physical Review E 86 (4): 046203-046208.
  • Chremos, A., A. Panagiotopoulos, Donald L Koch. 2012. "Dynamics of solvent-free grafted nanoparticles." Journal of Chemical Physics 136 (4).
  • Kaysap, T.V., Donald L Koch. 2012. "Chemotaxis driven instability of a confined bacterial suspension." Physical Review Letters 108 (3): 038101-038105.
  • Yang, C., J. Zhang, Donald L. Koch, X.L Yin. 2011. "Mass/heat transfer from a neutrally buoyant sphere in simple shear flow at finite Reynolds and Peclet numbers." AIChE Journal 57: 1419.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Fellow (American Physical Society) 1998
  • Frenkiel Award (APS/DFD) 1988
  • Presidential Young Investigator 1988
  • NATO Postdoctoral Fellow 1986
  • National Science Foundation Fellow 1981

Education

  • BA (History), Case Western Reserve University, 1981
  • BS (Chemical Engineering), Case Western Reserve University, 1981
  • Ph D (Chemical Engineering), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985