Karl D. Hammond, Ph.D.

Department of Nuclear Engineering
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
(e-mail address hidden from bots)

B.S., chemical engineering, California Institute of Technology, June 2003
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst, completed August 2009 (awarded February 2010)

About Me

I finally decided my old web page (which I first created in high school) needed a re-fit. Here's the result; I hope it passes muster.

I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I work for Professor Brian Wirth (Nuclear Engineering Department) as part of an effort to model radiation damage in tungsten. Our goal is to determine the mechanisms of damage, with a goal of hinting at the lifetime of the diverter used in proposed nuclear fusion reactors such as ITER. We use primarily simulation techniques to study the effects of bombarding tungsten with helium and/or hydrogen. Between January 2010 and December of the same year, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley for Brian Wirth. It's the same job I have now; Brian moved from UC Berkeley to UT Knoxville September of 2010, and I moved to his new location when I was able.

I received my Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with a defense date of August 31, 2009. My dissertation, Quantifying Defects in Zeolites and Zeolite Membranes, discusses both experimental and computational characterization of zeolites, with emphasis on physical adsorption in membranes and NMR spectroscopy of nitrogen doped zeolites. This work was supervised by Professors Scott Auerbach (chemistry department) and Curt Conner (chemical engineering department). I stayed on at UMass for the fall 2009 semester to teach ChE 401, the undergraduate laboratory course.

I attended Caltech from 1999 to 2003, obtaining a bachelor of science in chemical engineering. I grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, and went to John Marshall High School.

I am hoping some day to be appointed to a faculty position in chemical engineering. I also hope to return to the upper Midwest when my postdoc is complete, though of course this will depend on job availability.

Links

Dr. Hammond's CV
The Compendium of Wheel of Time Characters. I created this site (right after graduating from high school) based on the late Robert Jordan's ongoing series of fantasy novels. The series is being completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death. There will be at least 14 books in the series, plus a shorter book that takes place before the primary action in the story. Two more prequels are rumored to be possibilities.
Thoughts on Carousel. I was the main actor, Billy Bigelow, in a production of this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical in April 2012. This document is my immediate reaction to it, from nine to fifteen days after the performances were over.

Education/Work Experience

Postdoctoral fellow, nuclear engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; January 2011–present. Supervisor: Brian D. Wirth.
Postdoctoral fellow, nuclear engineering, University of California, Berkeley; January 2010–December 2010. Supervisor: Brian D. Wirth.
Lecturer, chemical engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst; September 2004–December 2009.
Graduate student, chemical engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst; September 2004–August 2009. Advisors: Scott M. Auerbach and W. Curtis Conner.
Laboratory assistant, molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, Mayo Clinic; December 2003–August 2004. Supervisor: W. Stephen Brimijoin.
Undergraduate student, Caltech, September 1999–June 2003. Research advisors: Richard Murray and David Goodwin.
Research intern, Chevron–Texaco Energy Research and Technology Company, June–August 2002. Supervisors: Saleh Elomari and Charles Wilson.
Research intern, biochemistry, Mayo Clinic; June–August 2001. Supervisor: John T. Penniston.

Publications

NOTE: Publications marked with an asterisk (*) are those to which KDH contributed significantly. All publications listed have been subject to peer review and are listed in the order in which they were submitted.

Marus, L. A., H.-J. Lee-Voigt, K. D. Hammond, N. Juslin, and B. D. Wirth. “Atomic-Scale Investigation of the Structure and Composition of Y--Ti--O Nanoclusters in Ferritic Alloys” (working title). Planned for Journal of Nuclear Materials, special edition from ICFRM-15, to be submitted November 2011.
*Hammond, K. D., H.-J. Lee-Voigt, L. A. Marus, N. Juslin, and B. D. Wirth. “Simple Pairwise Interactions for Hybrid Monte Carlo–Molecular Dynamics Simulations in Titania/Yttria-Doped BCC Iron.” Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, submitted.
*Conner, W. C., K. D. Hammond, and R. L. Laurence. “A Moveable Feast—A Progressive Approach to the Unit Operations Laboratory.” Chemical Engineering Education 45 (3): 193–202 (summer 2011).
Jae, J., G. A. Tompsett, A. J. Foster, K. D. Hammond, S. M. Auerbach, W. C. Conner, R. F. Lobo, and G. W. Huber. “Investigation Into the Shape Selectivity of Zeolite Catalysts for Biomass Conversion.” Journal of Catalysis 279 (2): 257–268 (2011).
Shen, W., G. A. Tompsett, K. D. Hammond, R. Xing, F. Dogan, C. P. Grey, W. C. Conner, S. M. Auerbach, and G. W. Huber. “Liquid Phase Aldol Condensation Reaction over MgO-ZrO₂ and Shape-Selective Amine-Substituted NaY.” Applied Catalysis A: General 392 (1–2): 57–68 (2011).
*Hammond, K. D. and S. M. Auerbach. “Modeling the Structure and Spectroscopy of Alkaline Zeolites.” In Silica and Silicates in Modern Catalysis, I. Halasz, Ed. Kerala: Research Signpost, 2010. Chapter 2, pp 29–47.
*Hammond, K. D., M. Gharibeh, G. A. Tompsett, F. Dogan, S. M. Auerbach, C. P. Grey, and W. C. Conner. “Optimizing the Synthesis of Nitrogen Substituted Zeolites.” Chemistry of Materials 22 (1): 130–142 (2010).
Gharibeh, Murad; Tompsett, Geoffrey; Lu, Fan; Auerbach, Scott M.; Yngwesson, K. Sigfrid; and Conner, W. C. “Temperature Distributions within Zeolite Precursor Solutions in the Presence of Microwaves.” Journal of Physical Chemistry B 113 (37): 12506–12520 (2009). [*Cover Art and Description by KDH] [HTML] [PDF]
*Dogan, F., K. D. Hammond, G. A. Tompsett, W. C. Conner, S. M. Auerbach, and C. P. Grey. “Searching for Microporous, Strongly Basic Catalysts: Experimental and Calculated ²⁹Si NMR Spectra of Heavily Nitrogen-Doped Y~Zeolites.” Journal of the American Chemical Society 131 (31): 11062–11079 (2009).
Hummelshøj, J. S., D. D. Landis, J. Voss, T. Jiang, A. Tekin, N. Bork, M. Dulak, J. J. Mortensen, L. Adamska, J. Andersin, J. Baran, G. D. Barmparis, F. Bell, A. L. Bezanilla, J. Bjork, M. E. Björketun, F. Bleken, F. Buchter, M. Bürkle, P. D. Burton, B. Buus, A. Calborean, F. Calle-Vallejo, S. Casolo, B. Chandler, D. H. Chi, I. Czekaj, S. Datta, A. Datye, A. DeLaRiva, V. Despoja, S. Dobrin, M. Engelund, L. Ferrighi, P. Frondelius, Q. Fu, A. Fuentes, J. Fürst, A. Garcíia-Fuente, J. Gavnholt, R. Goeke, S. Gudmundsdottir, K. D. Hammond, H. A. Hansen, D. Hibbitts, J. G. Howalt, S. L. Hruby, A. Huth, L. Isaeva, J. Jelic, I. J. T. Jensen, E. H. Junior, K. Kacprzak, A. Kelkkanen, D. Kelsey, D. S. Kesanakurthi, J. Kleis, P. J. Klüpfel, I. Konstantinov, R. Korytar, P. Koskinen, C. Krishna, E. Kunkes, A. H. Larsen, J. M. G. Lastra, H. Lin, O. Lopez-Acevedo, M. Mantega, J. I. Martínez, I. N. Mesa, D. J. Mowbray, J. S. G. Mýrdal, Y. Natanzon, A. Nistor, T. Olsen, H. Park, J. W. Pedersen, L. S. Pedroza, V. Petzold, C. Plaisance, J. A. Rasmussen, H. Ren, M. Rizzi, A. S. Ronco, C. Rostgaard, S. Saadi, L. A. Salguero, E. J. G. Santos, A. L. Schoenhalz, J. Shen, M. Smedemand, O. J. Stausholm-Møller, M. Stibius, M. Strange, H. Su, B. Temel, A. Toftelund, V. Tripkovic, M. Vanin, V. Viswanathan, A. Vojvodic, S. Wang, K. S. Thygesen, J. Rossmeisl, T. Bligaard, K. W. Jacobsen, J. K. Nørskov and T. Vegge. “DFT-Based Screening of Novel Alkali-Transition Metal Borohydrides---A Computational Materials Design Project.” Journal of Chemical Physics 131 (1): 014101 (2009).
*Payer, K. R., K. D. Hammond, G. A. Tompsett, L. Krogh, M. N. Pratt, and W. C. Conner, “The Effects of Mechanical and Thermal Perturbations on States Within the Hysteresis of Sorption Isotherms of Mesoporous Materials,” Journal of Porous Materials 16 (1): 91–99 (2009).
*Hammond, K. D., F. Dogan, G. A. Tompsett, V. Agarwal, C. P. Grey, W. C. Conner, and S. M. Auerbach. “Spectroscopic Signatures of Nitrogen-Substituted Zeolites.” Journal of the American Chemical Society 130 (45): 14912–14913 (2008).
*Hammond, K. D., M. Hong, G. A. Tompsett, S. M. Auerbach, J. L. Falconer, and W. C. Conner. “High-Resolution Physical Adsorption on Supported Borosilicate MFI Zeolite Membranes.” Journal of Membrane Science 325 (1) 413–419 (2008).
*Hammond, K. D., G. A. Tompsett, S. M. Auerbach, and W. C. Conner. “Physical Adsorption Analysis of Intact Supported MFI Zeolite Membranes.” Langmuir 23 (16), 8371–8384 (2007).
*Hammond, K. D., G. A. Tompsett, S. M. Auerbach, and W. C. Conner, “Apparatus for Measuring Physical Adsorption on Intact Supported Porous Membranes.” Journal of Porous Materials 14 (4), 409–416 (2007).