Ailo Aasen successfully defends his PhD thesis entitled “Bulk and interfacial thermodynamics of mixtures: From aqueous systems to ultracryogenic fluids”, Friday 27th of March.
The thesis deals with a variety of topics such as predicting the thermodynamic properties of fluids that exhibit strong quantum effects, such as hydrogen, helium, neon, deuterium and their mixtures. The thesis also discusses nucleation in fluid mixtures (see the following Gemini article for a popular scientific summary) and solid formation in mixtures.
I have had the privilege to be the main supervisor of Ailo, and Dr. Hammer from SINTEF Energy Research has been his co-supervisor. The main opponent at his thesis defence was Prof. Carlos Vega from the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University Complutense of Madrid in Spain, and the second opponent was Dr. Thijs van Westen from Stuttgart University in Germany. The administrator of the committee was Prof. Maria Fernandino from NTNU. Due to the ongoing virus crisis, it was impossible for the opponents to come to Norway. Moreover, since most of us is staying at home, the PhD defense was successfully executed interactively. The committee was very satisfied with the work, and stated that it belonged to the top 5% best theses in the world. I feel very grateful for all the fun that we have had these years, and it’s a bit sad that the chapter of Ailos PhD has been completed. Fortunately, Ailo joins me as a colleague in SINTEF Energy Research. A couple of pictures can be found below, with Ailo and Maria, and of the opponents.
