Dr. Mary Albert

Research Mechanical Engineer

Areas of Specialization:

• Heat, mass, and chemical transport in porous media
• Snow-air transfer processes
• Snow physics
• Numerical analysis
• Modeling

Dr. Albert's current research is centered on transfer processes in snow and porous media, including air-snow exchange in the polar regions and in temperate areas. Her research includes field measurements, laboratory experiments, and theoretical modeling. Albert conducts field and laboratory measurements of the physical properties of snow, including permeability, quantitative microscopy of snow microstructure, and thermal conductivity, and uses the measurements to examine the processes of diffusion and advection of heat, mass, and chemical transport through snow and other porous media.

Albert has developed numerical models for investigation of a variety of problems, from ice core interpretation to atmospheric chemistry to contaminant transport on Army training lands. These models include a two-dimensional finite element code for air flow with heat, water vapor, and chemical transport in porous media, several multidimensional codes for diffusive transfer, as well as a computational fluid dynamics code for analysis of turbulent water flow in moving-boundary phase change problems.

Albert is also an adjunct professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, where she serves as thesis advisor to students at undergraduate, Master's, and Ph.D. levels.