Biomedical Engineering Grad Student Wins Lambert Prize

May 22, 2015 - Li Xiao, a biomedical engineering doctoral candidate, has been named one of two winners of this year’s UC Irvine Justine Lambert Prize. The $2,000 prize, which Li will share with chemistry doctoral student Keun Ah Ryu, is awarded every other year for the best paper submitted by a graduate student, in any school or department, addressing issues in natural or social sciences. The paper, which must focus on “foundational issues in the formal, natural or social sciences, using tools, methods and results from scientific practice to cast light on the conceptual, philosophical, and scientific relevance of those issues,” is funded by Joseph Karel Lambert, philosophy research professor emeritus.

Xiao’s paper, “A Multi-Scale Method for Dynamics Simulation in Continuum Solvent Models I: Finite-Difference Algorithm for Navier-Stokes Equation,” develops a process for creating more realistic molecular dynamics simulations. The method combines molecular mechanics with fluid mechanics, creating a more computationally efficient approach to large-scale simulations. Xiao’s adviser is molecular biology and biochemistry professor Ray Luo.