Grad Student Profile

Md Abdullaha Al Mamun, MSc Student

His name is Mamun but for a Canadian this is not obvious…  After a chat about how names are used in Bangladesh, I’m still confused and I’ll leave it at that.  Let’s just say it’s a lot more complex than in western cultures. 

Mamun started his studies at the UofA in September 2010.  He has quickly completed five courses for his Master’s degree.  Along with Dr. Bhattacharjee, he already has a soon-to-be-published paper on the topic of an electrokinetic model for membrane filtration.  Although this paper is focused on computer simulations don’t let this fool you…  All is not virtual for Mamun and he has interests in the “real” world.  The grounding experience of working with his hands started in Bangladesh where he worked in BUET undgraduate labs using “scraps” to make things.  He also worked in a fertilizer plant just before coming to Canada.  Since this guy’s got one foot in the virtual world and the other in the real world, I asked him “What’s the difference?”  Modestly, Mamun says obstacles in the simulations can easily be overcome using the right assumptions while the answer to obstacles in the real world at not obvious.  His current experimental work is to continue progress in developing a microfluidic chip that can be used to test the stability of emulsions used in the energy industry.

Mamun’s arrival and survival in Edmonton has been made a lot easier because he came with two other friends from Bangladesh.  Friends had warned him about the cold weather but that didn’t prevent him from thinking September was cold enough.  The support from his friends is invaluable and the three of them conduct cooking blitzes on Saturdays to create tasty delights to enjoy during their weekly picnics.