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Current and Former Students
Argonne National Laboratory offers many programs designed to mentor and educate students. Within Argonne’s Nuclear Engineering Division, we have hosted numerous students in nuclear energy and related fields throughout the years. A list of current students, their affiliations and student program descriptions are available below along with a list of former students.
Current Students @ NE
Name / University / Dates |
Work Description |
Supervisor(s) |
Amanda Bastidos, Daniel Castro, Brenda Machado |
Super high temperature applications involve temperatures in excess of 1000 C. There is a critical need for the exploration of such materials because the Ni-base super-alloys that are used at present have reached their upper temperature limit of 1000 C. The critical requirements for properties include, oxidation resistance, high temperature strength and creep resistance, and low temperature formability capabilities. The current project evaluates the oxidation performance and micro-structural characteristics of ultra-high temperature Nb-W-Cr alloys for application gas turbines, combustion liners, etc. in fossil-fuel fired combustion systems. |
Ken Natesan |
Steven Cai |
The pre-college mentoring program has been established to ensure that mentoring activities at Argonne are carried out in a safe manner and provide an excellent learning experience for participating students interested in pursuing a career in science. |
Raymond Klann |
Christopher Campos |
A real-time system is being developed for detecting and tracking photon emission sources. The student has the responsibility of interacting with engineers responsible for the design of detector systems and signal processing algorithms. Tasks include (1) supporting continued development of a software system that provides capabilities for detector hardware to communicate with signal analysis algorithms and with an operator interface and (2) assembling and configuring advanced detector platforms from electronic and software components. |
Richard B. Vilim |
Christopher Campos |
A system capable of detecting the introduction of a radioactive source and tracking its position is under development. The student works in a C++ programming environment adding capability to a prototype system. Tasks include adding new features to the operator interface, generalizing the hardware/software interface to accept a wider range of detector types, embedding new C++ signal processing algorithms for improving system sensitivity, incorporating a live video image that tracks the source movement, and analyzing the performance of the real-time system in tracking a source. |
Richard B. Vilim |
Sophie Fontes |
CIEE Research Aide working in the Plant Analysis & Diagnostics section. CIEE: The Council on International Educational Exchange is the leading U.S. non-governmental international education organization. CIEE creates and administers programs that allow high school and university students and educators to study and teach abroad. |
Thomas Y. Wei |
Jan Froitzheim |
Participate in extensive research, in particular, in the area of high temperature corrosion being conducted at Julich Research Center in Germany. This information will benefit Argonne’s ongoing activity on materials for advanced materials program supported by DOE/Fossil Energy. |
Ken Natesan |
Gary Kaganas |
Modeling of fission product behavior in Advanced High Performance Nuclear Fuels. |
Jeff Rest |
Zunping Liu |
Participate in developing a cross-polarization confocal optical system with low power visible and infrared lasers to detect 3D subsurface microstructure in ceramic specimens. |
Jiangang Sun |
Daniel Ludwig |
NEEP 412: Nuclear Engineering Senior Design Project - GFR Guard Containment Internals High Temperature Design. |
Thomas Y. Wei |
Tenille Medley |
Develop signal processing algorithms for improving the sensitivity of a prototype system. The algorithms will be initially developed in Matlab and their performance evaluated with experimental data. The algorithms will then be converted to C++ and embedded in the real time system. |
Richard B. Vilim |
Taylor Moulton |
ANL Practicum Assignment. Participate in assessments of the VHTR “deep-burn” fuel cycle strategy at Argonne. |
T. A. Taiwo |
Adrian Ontiveros Benedictine University |
This program will develop a noninvasive and non-ionizing photoacoustic spectroscope (PAS) imaging technique for fast explosive detection or for personnel injury diagnosis in a battlefield or a disaster emergency area. This proposed PAS technique uses a modulated laser to illuminate the target agents. The laser energy absorbed by the agents and produces a local heating effect that causes a transient thermal expansion. Accompanying with the thermal waves, elastic acoustic waves are also produced. The acoustic waves propagating in the agents will be measured by using three acoustic sensing devices, a wideband piezoelectric probe, a multi-bandwidth piezoelectric phase array, and a miniature optical-acoustic probe. This program provides students an opportunity to learn the PAS technique, novel designing of acoustic sensor, data and imaging analysis, software and hardware integration, and experimental techniques. |
Hual-Te Chien |
Robert Petroski |
Physics study conducted on advanced homogeneous and heterogeneous recycling approaches to evaluate their impacts on fast reactor core performance and the fuel separation and partitioning operations of the fuel cycle. |
Ed Hoffman |
Frankie Pontillo |
The student effort is supporting design, fabrication, and testing of mechanical systems that support field usable radiation detection equipment. Recent developments of regional RAP (Radiological Assistance Program) teams has indicated a list of minor improvement to existing equipment that would improve the ability to use the equipment and allow for safer and more effective operations in the field. The RAP team is a DOE regional asset for responding to radiological incidents, accidents, and events utilizing specialized radiation detection equipment. The student is involved with all apsects of the project including the conceptual design and layout of individual pieces of equipment, the design and review of prototype instruments, the procurement and fabrication of components and complete prototypes, and the testing and evaluation of the prototypes in the laboratory. |
Raymond Klann |
Joseph Prazak |
NEEP 412: Nuclear Engineering Senior Design Project - GFR Guard Containment Internals High Temperature Design. |
Thomas Y. Wei |
Cyrus Proctor |
Study of liquid-cooled reactor thermal-hydraulics to optimize heat removal performance in normal operation and in shutdown status. Analytical and computer-based analysis techniques will be employed to predict heat removal under forced flow and natural circulation conditions. |
J. E. Cahalan |
Joshua Shea |
The GNEP program was launched by US-DOE to expand the use of nuclear energy under the international consensus. ABR is one of the major technologies to be demonstrated in GNEP. The primary mission of the ABR is to transmute the TRU recovered from light water reactor spent fuel. The potential roles of the burnable absorber in ABR to minimize TRU conversion ratio and reduce the burnup reactivity will be investigated. |
T. K. Kim |
Jeffrey Smith |
Assist in the development, simulation and analysis of models using commercial RANS-based software as part of this initial benchmarking effort. |
William D. Pointer |
Matthew Thomas |
Participate in the experimental studies on compact heat exchanger systems used in supercritical CO2 power conversion systems with specific interest in Gen IV reactor concepts. |
Dae H. Cho |
Travis Trahan Texas A&M University |
Verification and Validation of LIFE-IV Code for Modeling of the Nuclear Fuel Behavior in Advanced Burners. |
Totju L. Totev |
Josh Van Meter |
Participate in the experimental studies on compact heat exchanger systems used in supercritical CO2 power conversion systems with specific interest in Gen IV reactor concepts. |
Dae H. Cho |
Peter Vilim |
Support the development of the RADTRAC system. RADTRAC is a system that is used for tracking the movement of radioactive sources in real-time using measurements from radiation detectors. The system has several components including radiation detectors, multi-channel analyzer electronics, data acquisition with wireless and serial communications, video imaging, data analysis, and software development for the user interface and display. The current system uses serial connections through USB cabling and hubs to control the detectors and collect the data. The main task for the student project is to develop a prototype wireless communications system using commercial equipment and to demonstrate effective control and data acquisition using the system in the laboratory. Additionally, tasks include developing and helping to implement the video imaging and camera operation capability in the RADTRAC system, and supporting the improvement of the RADTRAC user interface software. |
Raymond Klann |
Leo Wallis |
The GNEP program was launched by US-DOE to expand the use of nuclear energy under the international consensus. ABR is one of the major technologies to be demonstrated in GNEP. The primary mission of the ABR is to transmute the TRU recovered from light water reactor spent fuel. The potential roles of the burnable absorber in ABR to minimize TRU conversion ratio and reduce the burnup reactivity will be investigated. |
T. K. Kim |
Bei Ye |
Support NE activities in the area of nuclear fuel cycle system studies and system dynamic simulation. |
A. M. Yacout |
Di Yun |
Support NE activities in the area of nuclear fuel cycle system studies and system dynamic simulation. |
A. M. Yacout |
Former Students @ NE (2003-2006)
Former Students (*) include:
Kara Beharry (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Aurelien Bernard (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Ross Bodnar (Illinois Wesleyan University), Joerg Boehm (Forschungszentrum Julich GmbH, Germany), Anne Bouscarle (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Keith Bowers (Lewis University), Yan Cao (University of Michigan), Jerome Case (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Christopher Chang (Naperville Central High School), Michael P. Daly (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Zhijan Dong (University of Chicago), Bryant Dowd, Jose Duo (Pennsylvania State University), Nicholas Edds (Plainfield South High School), David Engblom (Western Michigan University), Vera Erguina (Texas A&M University), Etienne Espagne (Ecoles des Mines de Paris), Maxime Espin (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Baptiste Fara (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Michael Fiorino (Ohio State University), Takashi Fujiki (University of Tokyo Institute of Technology), Pierre Hanania (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Eric Howell (Purdue University), Antonio Johnson, Thomas Goter, Scott Spychala (University of Missouri Rolla), Paul Keto (Lewis University), Konrad Kulesza (Oregon State University), Viktoriya Kulik (University of Michigan), Robyn Kurtenbach, Silke Latzel (Forschungszentrum Julich GmbH, Germany), Maxime Leclere (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Phuongloan Libby (North Carolina State University), Qi Lou (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), James Maddox (Georgia Tech), Jeffrey Magedanz (Oregon State University), Gus Magill (University of Texas Pan-American ), Jessica Matheron (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Rosa Mendoza, Anton Moisseytsev (Texas A&M University), Anna Nikiforova (Oregon State University), Michael Nowak (Bradley University), Plamen Petkov (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Patricia Posch, Jeff Pozzo (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Tracy Radel (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Timothy Rogers (Texas A&M University), Suneet Singh (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Jeffrey Smith, Emily Dringenberg, Mary Sprouse (Kansas State University), Hoseok Song (University of Missouri Rolla), Gilles Stoven (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Frank Szakaly (Texas A&M University), Jonathan Teyssandier (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Justin Thomas (Purdue University), Jennifer Weber (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Emily Wolters (University of Michigan), Yuichiro Yamashita (Kyushu University, Japan), Yeon Jong Yoo (Oregon State University).
(*) Specified in brackets is the University affiliation of the student at the time of his/her Internship at the Nuclear Engineering Division.
