George Dickinson ’22
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mineral-Water-Organic Interactions in Soils
My project investigated the interface between water and black carbon in our atmosphere. As black carbon is the second largest anthropogenic contributor to global warming, it plays a significant role in understanding how humans contribute to climate change. I focused on creating a simulation of graphene oxide and water particles, and I worked on finding the angle a water droplet makes with a graphene oxide sheet. This will determine whether carbon particles sit on the surface of water droplets where they absorb sunlight, or if they enter the water droplet. I gained skills in using MATLAB, Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) and Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) computer software, and improved my coding and problem-solving skills. Learning about molecular dynamic simulations was the most interesting part of the internship. The process of finding and experimenting with different parameters and becoming familiar with the computer software was very interesting. I discovered that it can be applied in many areas outside of environmental engineering. I hope to be able to use these skills and knowledge during my Princeton career.
2020
Water and the Environment
Interfacial Water Group, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University
Ian Bourg, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Xiaohan Li, Ph.D. candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering