2024

Thomas Wallek

Associate Professor, Graz University of Technology

Areas: Chemical and Process Engineering, Chemical Thermodynamics, Education

Thomas Wallek’s area of expertise is chemical thermodynamics and its application in chemical and process engineering, for which he uses Wolfram as an essential standard tool for both research and teaching. In his research, he focuses on thermodynamic modeling, the estimation of physical property data, the characterization of complex mixtures and molecular simulations.

In this context, his workgroup has been developing a Gibbs-ensemble Monte Carlo simulation program completely implemented in Wolfram, which is constantly being further developed and benefits from the diverse visualization and evaluation capabilities of Wolfram Language. In the context of teaching, Wallek is committed to the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Marketplace initiative of Graz University of Technology that focuses on the development and scaling of TEL innovations for teaching. In particular, Wolfram Notebooks were created as the basis of a chemical thermodynamics course that was designed in the “inverted classroom” concept and enables students to acquire the material independently through self-study. For this purpose, manipulable diagrams and animated equations were integrated into the notebooks, with which students can interact and learn independently.