Princeton University

By Norhan Nady

Today, we went to Princeton University which is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. It was founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, as the College of New Jersey. It was moved to Newark in 1747, then to Princeton in 1756 and was renamed Princeton University in 1896.
We visited Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department in School of Engineering and applied Sciences.
In the first session, Prof. Howard .A. Stone gave an overview of his group and the current research topics which focus on dynamics of complex fluids (i.e. Fluid dynamics and transport processes, Microfluids, and Colloidal Sciences are the main three research phases in group of Stone). Then, three different members of the group presented their research topics.
“Behaviors of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa on interfaces” was presented by Yi Shen. She tries to find out how these rod-shape bacteria behave on the surfaces and which interface they prefer to attach; liquid-liquid or liquid-solid interface. This research is a step to study biofilm formation in channel flows. “Microfluidic Magnetic Bead Sorting” was presented by Scott S.H. Tsai. His target is immunomagnetic cell separation by applying magnetic field on the stream. “High-strain and high-strain rate behaviors in materials” was presented by Matthieu Roché. He studies flow-induced phase transitions in complex fluids and stimuli- responsive materials such as anisotropic swelling in rubber material. One of interesting result in this research is that he found fluid that behaves like solid under high shear rate.

After a short break with small individual discussion, we had a lab tour. Autoclaves, incubator, spectrophotometer, fluorescence and confocal microscopes and other facilities are available in both bio- and general labs. Then, we had lunch with group of Stone which gave another valuable chance for individual discussion between the members of the two groups.

The second session started with the introduction presentation by Prof. Remko Boom followed by presentation by five members of Food Process Engineering department. Thomas Krebs presented how he tries to investigate the kinetics of droplet coalescence under compressional stresses of the same magnitude as caused by a typical swirl element. Elsbeth van der Zalm presented her research on shear-induced wheat flour separation which based on rheological differences of major constituents. Abid Maan, Francisco, and Xin who did presentation in the previous universities also re-presented their researches.

The last session in the program was roundtable discussion in many specific points between the both professors and members of both groups.