Congratulations to Fernando Dri on receiving the Certificate of Excellence Award from the Purdue Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (OIGP) for his work on multiscale modeling of nanocellulose. Fernando is a current Ph.D candidate working with Professor Pablo Zavattieri in the Computational Multi-Scale Materials Modeling Lab.

Fernando's research presentation was entitled "Multiscale modeling of the hierarchical structure of cellulose nanocrystals". His research involves the development of a multiscale modeling framework  to predict and describe the thermo-mechanical behavior of cellulose nanocrystals using state-of-the-art computational tools capable of connecting atomistic based simulations to experiments through continuum based modeling techniques.

As part of his efforts, he began his investigation at the atomistic level using first-principle theories and molecular dynamics simulations to extract key mechanical properties for isolated molecule chains and nanocrystals as well as the thermal conductivity coefficients. As a result of his early work, he developed a new continuum theory  to simulate cellulose nanocrystals using the finite element method. Some recent work done in the materials area of the School of Civil Engineering  has demonstrated that nanocellulose can be great candidates for improving the properties of cement.

The Purdue Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs (OIGP) hosts a reception in celebration of interdisciplinary graduate student research. A diverse array of student research posters and multimedia presentations are featured from across Purdue's 15 interdisciplinary graduate programs. One Certificate of Excellence Award is given in each interdisciplinary program. A list of winners is available here: http://www.gradschool.purdue.edu/oigp/calendar/winners.cfm