Freund Receives APS Fluid Dynamics Award

Professor Jonathan Freund

Freund was selected for the award based on his paper, "Leucocyte Margination in a Model Microvessel," which appeared online in February 2007. In that paper, he explained how he used numerical simulations of 29 red blood cells and one white blood cell to better understand the underlying mechanism that brings white blood cells to the vessel walls-a phenomenon that must occur before the body can launch an inflammatory response.

Freund's findings demonstrated that:

• white blood cells are most likely to come into and stay in contact with the vessel wall when the blood is flowing slowly through the vessel
• the recruitment of white blood cells to the vessel wall is reduced when the speed of flow increases
• interactions between red and white blood cells are what bring white blood cells to the wall during slow flow and that red blood cells do not have to clump together for this to occur

The model Freund used to investigate the movement of blood cells in the vessels was based on fluid mechanics and hydrodynamics and reproduced physical effects. As a result, his findings are consistent with several experimental observations.