The sculptures I create reflect the elements of the natural world such as trees, the lumpy bush, clumps of turf. They have imperfect yet fascinating textures, picturesque in form, seemingly fractal in design, working together harmoniously to serve the aesthetic. My sculptures, like these natural shapes, are heavy or thicker toward the bottom and lighter toward the top, like a tree or stone. I strive to echo the mercurial, the animated natural surfaces, and the enticing vignettes one would experience on a woodland stroll.

My Master of Fine Art research explores the fracturing and fermentation that occurs when two cultural identities first collide, then begin to merge, one traditionally steeped in collective thinking and community – Korea, and the other with a focus on the individual and autonomy – Canada. I was trained as an artist in South Korea and learned from masters who had decades of experience in the field of traditional ceramics. Until I moved to Canada, my work focused on Korean traditional ceramics and its history. However, my desire to be recognized as an individual artist instead of another anonymous traditional ceramic artist has grown tremendously since I restarted my journey as a ceramic artist here in Canada. After practicing in the ceramics field in North America for two years, I am starting to understand what the differences are between Korea, where I received my initial education, and Canada, my adopted culture. The struggles I have experienced as an artist from outside of this new culture made me think about myself as an individual. I am now starting to discover my own unique voice in my work with clay. / October 2016

School of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Johannesburg, 2016 / The synthesis of pure layered clay minerals has to be evaluated at low temperatures, pressures and short reaction times to scale up to commercial processes. However, it has been discovered that under such reaction conditions, reactions experience considerable difficulties. Such difficulties include low yields of products that occur with associated other minerals, and long reaction times. Thus, the synthesis of synthetic clay minerals is commonly approached by the hydrothermal technique, which involves the crystallization of substances at high vapour pressures and temperatures. However, the employment of the hydrothermal technique is time- and water consuming, thus, the need for an energy-saving and reaction accelerating process method. In the work presented here particular interest is paid to the synthetic layered clay mineral pyrophyllite, which is used as a pressure transmitting medium in the making of synthetic diamond. As opposed to the hydrothermal technique, this work adopts the synthetic method resin gel for the synthesis of these layered materials. Preliminary results by Loren Purcell have shown that the resin-gel synthesis method has been able to make apparently layered materials that appear to have a thermal gravimetric profile that indicates a gradual mass loss of both surface and structural water. The work presented here reproduces these results and further explores other Si\Al ratio’s, silica and alumina precursors for the synthesis of pyrophyllite-like materials and the different heating methods of the gels. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows that irrespective of the synthesis conditions sheet-like or platy crystals are formed. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirms on the TEM observations and shows that the surface texture of the crystals has a compact appearance. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) of the materials confirms on previous observations from preliminary results, materials indicate both adsorbed surface and interlayer water. Powder Xray diffraction (PXRD) is inconclusive of the determination of phase pure pyrophyllite. Furthermore, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) reveals that the materials are mesoporous solids and the materials were also characterised by DSC, Raman and HRTEM. / MT2016

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"April, 2002" Includes bibliographical references and Publications list (leaves 22-30) V. 1. nos.1-50 -- v. 2. nos. 51-105 "Selected research publications submitted to the University of Adelaide for the degree of Doctor of Science."

"April, 2002" / Includes bibliographical references and Publications list (leaves 22-30) / 2 v. (various paging) : / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / "Selected research publications submitted to the University of Adelaide for the degree of Doctor of Science." / Thesis (D.Sc.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Environmental Biology, 2003

Unsaturated swelling clays are used in engineered barriers for waste disposal facilities due to their self-sealing ability and low hydraulic conductivity. The characterization of unsaturated clay behaviour is required for design of these barriers. In recent years, several small-scale laboratory and full-scale field tests have been conducted to characterize the mechanical and hydraulic behaviour of the unsaturated swelling clay. This focus of the present study is towards the development of constitutive models to simulate hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of precompacted unsaturated swelling clay, called the bentonite-sand buffer (BSB) material. Development, calibration, implementation, and application of the proposed constitutive models form the scope of the study. The results of laboratory triaxial tests with controlled suction and suction measurements are used to calibrate the constitutive models presented. An algorithm, called the PEM (Parameter Evaluation Method), which is useful to estimate constitutive model parameters and evaluate the performance of constitutive models is proposed. This algorithm has been used to estimate the parameters of two elasto-plastic constitutive models (i.e., the BBM (Alonso et al. 1990) and the BGM (Blatz and Graham 2003)) based on the laboratory tests results on the BSB material. New 3-dimensional porosity-dependent permeability model (kwn) and water retention surface (WRS) are developed in this study. The mathematical formulations of these models using parameters calibrated with laboratory tests conducted on the BSB material are provided. Implementation algorithms of the BBM, the BGM, the kwn, and the WRS in 2-phase flow hydraulic-mechanical (H-M) analysis using a 2D-finite difference method are also provided . Three combinations of hydraulic and mechanical constitutive models (linear elastic model, BGM, vanGenuchten (1980) and kwn models) are used to simulate small-scale infiltration processes in the BSB material. Two types of tests, constant volume (CV) and constant mean stress (CMS) tests are simulated using 2D-finite difference H-M analysis. The full-scale isothermal test (ITT) of AECL is modelled using 3 combinations of H-M constitutive models. The ITT experiment comprises of buffer, rock, and concrete materials. The selected combinations of H-M constitutive models are used in three types of analyses: buffer-only (BO); buffer-rock with 20x30m domain (BR); and time-dependent boundary conditions (BCt). The results of the study show that the applications of the elasto-plastic mechanical constitutive models and porosity-dependent permeability (kwn) model are improvements over existing constitutive models to model this class of problem. The rock properties and applied boundary conditions are significant in modelling the ITT experiment. The application of the time-dependent boundary condition can reduce the uncertainty of the rock properties and boundary conditions within the rock, so that it improves the model ability to simulate the hydraulic-mechanical behaviour of unsaturated swelling clay. / October 2007

Brick. A simple object, but one that has been a base unit of architecture for over 6000 years. It carries connotations of labour, of energy, of the fundamental desire of humanity to give form to the substance of the Earth. However, current tendencies in manufacturing and construction are challenging the prevalence of the traditional brick-and-mortar system. Automated manufacturing, large-scale prefabrication, and digital simulation are becoming standard practices. This thesis posits that although brick must adapt to a changing architectural climate, contemporary construction should also learn from the versatility and poetics of this timeless material. Starting from clay, I make and inhabit a shelter of brick. My interaction with the material serves as grounding for a wider discussion of its role in architecture today.

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