Tobias Armstrong

Tobias Armstrong

Tobias Armstrong

Student / Programme Doctorate at D-MAVT

ETH Zürich

Mehrphasen-Thermofluidik und O.

ML J 41.1

Sonneggstrasse 3

8092 Zürich

Switzerland

Additional information

Research area

In his doctoral research, he investigates the fundamentals of heterogeneous solid nucleation from solutes, especially the mineral scales calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate, focusing on important but poorly understood aspects of surface effects. Detailed theoretical and experimental knowledge on how surfaces regulate scale nucleation and growth is a challenging but integral part to rationally engineering intrinsically “scale-phobic” surfaces, an important goal for tackling key challenges of sustainable and efficient water and energy management worldwide (water-energy nexus). The rational design of “scale-phobic” surfaces, especially focusing on novel mechanisms for regulating nucleation and decreased work of adhesion is the goal of Tobias and his colleagues.

To develop precisely designed surfaces and analyze their scale nucleation and growth, he is applying advanced micro-/nanofabrication methods in state-of-the-art cleanroom research facilities as well as high resolution, background free optical imaging techniques to observe surface-induced phase change phenomena.

In the upcoming spring semester 2021, Tobias is going to be part of the “Thermodynamics and Transport Phenomena in Nanotechnology” teaching team as a teaching assistant.

Tobias Neef is a doctoral student in the Laboratory of Multiphase Thermofluidics and Surface Nanoengineering. Prior to that, he received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University where he graduated 2019. During his degrees, he participated in the Unitech International program 2016/17 in which he stayed abroad for an academic year at Politecnico di Milano and completed an internship -- assisting a product plant engineer – at Evonik Nutrition & Care GmbH in Darmstadt. In 2019, Tobias spend half a year for his master thesis in Edmonton, Alberta. His master thesis was a collaboration project between the Chair of Chemical Process Engineering (AVT.CVT) at RWTH Aachen and the Energy Systems Design Laboratory (ESDLab) at the University of Alberta. His previous work for AVT.CVT investigated the filtration and backwashing performance of polymeric and ceramic multi-bore hollow fibers in membrane modules, containing experimental and computational work. DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2019.04.070 shows part of his work results.

Additional information

When he is not working, Tobias enjoys to swim and to play volleyball in the 3. Liga with his team in Zürich. After hiking several months through Western Europe, he fell in love with the calm meditative atmosphere of hikes. He is including weekend trips whenever possible.

 

 

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