Tree Soft Matter Theory

@ BYU ChemE

Research — Interested Students and Postdocs

Graduate Students and Postdocs

I am actively recruiting graduate students for several different projects (see the research page for more details). I prefer PhD candidates, but I will also consider excellent students pursuing a Master’s degree.

To join the group, you must be admitted as a graduate student to the Chemical Engineering Department at BYU. More details about applying to the graduate program can be found at this link. Note that the deadline for Fall admissions is January 31st. More details about our graduate program including details such as: the number of enrolled students, the average GRE scores and GPAs of admittees and average graduation time can be found here for PhDs and here for MS.

If you are interested to know more about the research opportunities in our group or if you have questions that are not addressed in the FAQ below, please email me. For questions about admission to the graduate program, please contact Serena Jacobson.

Undergraduate Students

I am looking for self-motivated undergraduate students interested in developing scientific software. A limited number of paid positions are currently available. Experience with programming (e.g. C/C++, Fortran, Python, Matlab, etc.) and numerical methods are desirable, but not required. For more information, please look at the research primer and time sheet that I have created for new students. If you are interested in joining the group, email me to set up a time to talk. Please provide an unofficial transcript and details of any relevant experience in your email.

FAQs

What projects are available?

See the research page for a description of current and past projects.

I’m a chemical engineer and your projects sound weird (i.e. where are the CSTRs?)

With both of my degrees in chemical engineering, I am deeply interested in using the fundamental principles of chemical engineering to solve technical problems in industry and society. That said, I’m not particularly interested in many of the “classical” areas of chemical engineering, since most (but I’m sure not all) of the fundamental research in these now-mature fields was done 50 to 100 years ago.

By contrast, the field of soft materials is relatively new, and has many possible frontiers for someone interested in both theory and making an impact in the real world. Moreover, there are many deep intellectual and historical ties between chemical engineering and soft materials, and there are currently many chemical engineers making important contributions to the field. As such, if you are interested in any of these areas of chemical engineering:

you may be interested in the projects in my group. (Note: not all projects will involve every one of these topics.)

Should I become involved in research as an undergraduate?

There are many benefits to doing research as an undergraduate student, including:

Despite its merits, research is time consuming, which can be hard for a busy student. Additionally, some students struggle with the self-directed nature of the work.

Will I like working with you?

I hope so.

This is a very important question that has both a technical and a personal component. In my experience, both are important.

Technical compatibility is hard to judge when you are first starting graduate school, since you don’t have a lot of experience. As a new researcher, there are a lot of unknown unknowns. My best advice would be to find something that sounds exciting and jump in. Most of your deeper intellectual interests come when you learn more about the subject area.

Some personal reflection about why you are interested in certain subjects may also be revealing. Are you intellectually curious (you like learning) or are you more motivated to get skills or a degree to help you find a job? Are you interested in a subject because you already know a lot about it? Because you think you are good at it? Are you interested in a subject because it has been in the news or because it sounds prestigious? Do you have personal reasons motivating your interest? Is there some cause you strongly believe in? To be clear, I don’t think any of these reasons are necessarily right or wrong, but they can be helpful when trying to decide what to pursue.

Personal compatibility is arguably more important, and in my experience is a key component of student’s research experiences that is often neglected. As a new professor, I will likely be more “hands on” than other, more senior professors. My best advice in this area, is to come and meet with me a few times and see me in a few different settings. If you’ve ever been on a first date, you can imagine that it might be a good idea to meet with somebody more than once before you commit to spending years of your life with that person. That said, I’m happy to meet with you, and you are welcome to attend any group meetings or talks that I give. Finally, don’t worry that I will take it personally if you initially show interest but ultimately choose to work with another professor.

How will doing research in your group help me get a job?

I am new and do not yet have an extensive network of industry contacts (but it’s growing!). Regardless, you can expect to acquire soft skills such as becoming an independent learner, an effective technical writer and presenter, and improved critical reasoning, as well as technical skills and knowledge of:

These skills are highly relevant for jobs in academia, industrial R&D, scientific programming, data science, molecular modelling, computational fluid dynamics, and quantitative finance among others.