Abstract: Heat transfer is central to many of the industries, technologies and devices we use every day, from our cell phones and laptops to our refrigerators and automobiles. However, there are still a number of problems that have remained unsolved for decades, and there are thermal phenomena for which the underlying physics is not well understood. This talk will show several examples of work being conducted in the Atomistic Simulation & Energy (ASE) research group at Georgia Tech that takes a fresh look at old problems and employs knowledge of atomistic level physics to develop new solutions. Several examples will be discussed including high temperature concentrated solar power (CSP), high thermal conductivity polymers/composites, and the physics of thermal conductivity in disordered materials (i.e., alloys and amorphous materials). The key in each example, is the fundamental insights gained from atomic level modeling that ultimately result in the identification of new performance regimes that were previously considered unattainable or impossible.

Bio: Dr. Asegun Henry is an Assistant Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech (www.ase.gatech.edu). He also holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering and was one of the founding members of Georgia Tech’s Heat Lab. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from MIT in 2009 under the supervision of Professor Gang Chen and he also holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Florida A & M University. Professor Henry started at Georgia Tech in April of 2012 and his primary research background is in heat transfer, with a specific emphasis on understanding energy transport, storage and conversion at the atomic level. His Ph.D. research focused on understanding phonon transport in individual polymer chains based on theoretical insights gained from molecular dynamics simulations. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, professor Henry also worked as a postdoc in the materials theory group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with Dr. David Singh. After ORNL, he then went on to work as a postdoc in the materials science department at Northwestern University with Chris Wolverton. After Northwestern, professor Henry worked as a fellow in the advanced research projects agency – energy (ARPA-E), where he focused on identifying new program areas, such as higher efficiency, lower cost solar and thermal energy conversion and storage, which helped to seed the full spectrum optimized conversion and utilization of sunlight (FOCUS) program.