8/7/2019 Larsen Letter of Reference Mar 11'

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Dr. Jos Derksen, professorChemical & Materials Engineering

University of AlbertaEdmonton AB, Canada T6G 2G6

phone +1 780 492 5267email jos@ualberta.ca

http://www.ualberta.ca/~jos/home.html

March18, 2011

Subject: reference for Robyn Larsen

To whom it may concern:

This is a letter in support of Robyn Larsen.

Robyn Larsen recently completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta in theMaterials Engineering program. I am a professor in the Department of Chemical & MaterialsEngineering at the UofA. In the summer of 2009 I selected Robyn as a summer research student.She continued her research in the 2009 Fall-term in the context of a special projects course. In her

research and the course she performed very well (in the course she was in the top 15% of her class).

The research project Robyn was involved in was sponsored by a company (Schlumberger) and had(in addition to Materials Engineering) a strong Chemical Engineering component. It was on theflow in oil pipelines in which solid particles (asphaltenes) form and tend to deposit on pipeline wallswith negative implications for the oil transport and sometimes leading to complete pipelinedisruption. Robyns role was to perform computer simulations that probe the dependency of theforces on the asphaltene particles as a function of their size, shape, and the flow conditions. Theseare subjects that go far beyond undergraduate fluid mechanics. She has set up series of simulations,and analyzed and reported the results. In all the aspects of her research she did very well. She alsohas been very instrumental in presenting the results to Schlumberger. In summary: as anundergraduate student she performed at a graduate student level.

Robyns research resulted in a paper and an oral presentation at the International Conference onMultiphase Flow. A in our field of research prestigious conference held last year in Tampa,Florida. At the conference the paper and Robyns presentation were very well received. Wecontinued the line of her research which resulted in a paper in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics (thepremier journal in this field) of which Robyn is co-author. For her research Robyn also received aDeans Research Award of the Faculty of Engineering of the UofA.

To highlight Robyns broad spectrum of talents and activities I would like to mention that she hasworked with me in organizing the 2010 version of the International Conference on MesoscopicMethods in Engineering and Science (ICMMES) that was held in Edmonton last summer. Robyn

impressed me with her pro-active approach in dealing with the challenges the organization of anevent of this size (we had some 110 participants from all over the globe) posed.

To extend and reinforce her technical and international experience, Robyn spent most of thesummer of 2010 in Graz (Austria), working on a Computational Fluid Dynamics project withAustrian Energy & Environment (AE&E). The feedback I received from her direct supervisorthere confirm my confidence in Robyns skills and attitude.

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Robyn is a reliable and pleasant person to work with, open-minded and communicative. She hasmany interests, and manages a wide variety of activities. In discussing scientific and non-scientificsubjects she formulates well, and has original and sensible opinions. She has excellent presentationskills.

Without any hesitation I highly recommend Robyn Larsen for a position in your organization.

Sincerely,

Jos Derksen