Professional Experience

Dr. Whitesides has pursued a variety of topics in mechanical engineering R&D in the course of his academic and research career. His doctoral thesis focused on the atomistic chemical mechanisms of soot particle growth in combustion environments. Since joining LLNL he has applied his theoretical and applied knowledge of chemical kinetics and scientific computing platforms towards internal combustion engine simulations with the goal of highly-efficient, clean-combustion engines for transportation. Dr. Whitesides has also worked alongside the Methods Development Group at LLNL in enhancing the capabilities and interoperability of scalable structural mechanics codes.

Research Interests

Combustion simulation with focus on internal combustion engines and soot as well as general interest in development of engineering and scientific simulation software.

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 2009

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2003

M.J. McNenly and R. Whitesides, “Fast Solvers for Large Kinetic Mechanisms”, Proc. Combust. Inst. Available online 20 August 2014, ISSN 1540-7489, doi:10.1016/j.proci.2014.05.113.

R. Whitesides, R.P. Hessel, D.L. Flowers, and S.M. Aceves, “Application of gaseous sphere injection method for modeling under-expanded H2 injection”, Combust. Theor. Model. 15 (2011) 373-384.

R. Whitesides and M. Frenklach, “Detailed Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations of Graphene-Edge Growth”, J. Phys. Chem. A, 114 (2010) 689-703.

R. Whitesides, D. Domin, R. Salomón-Ferrer, W. A. Lester, Jr., and M. Frenklach, “Embedded-ring migration on graphene zigzag edge”, Proc. Combust. Inst. 32 (2009) 577-583.

D. Wong, R. Whitesides, C. A. Schuetz, and M. Frenklach, “Molecular Dynamic Simulations of PAH Dimerization” in Proceedings of the International Workshop on Combustion Generated Fine Carbon Particles, Anacapri, Italy, May 13-16, 2007.