Number Crunching or Solving Problems? Peter's Impact on My Research Philosophy

Peter Cummings has made tremendous impact in the chemical engineering community because he has shown that massive computer simulations, when performed accurately and carefully, can explain experiemntal observations, innovate stagnant research fields, and even open up new research directions. In other words, he contributed enormously in making the simulation community relevant to our society. In this contribution I will discuss some of the research directions that originated when I was a post-doc in Peter’s laboratory. These range from water desalination to nanoparticle design to lubrication. The goal is to elucidate Peter’s impact on the research philosophy implemented in my group.