NSE Spotlight Archlives :: Women in nuclear science and engineering

http://web.mit.edu/nse/news/spotlights/women.htm

	Lindsey Anne Gilman: Better boiling for more efficient energy production For Lindsey Anne Gilman, SM ’12, playing with bubbles is serious work. Her PhD research project, launched this past summer, concerns ways of improving heat transfer for energy production utilizing boiling water. In nuclear reactors, the formation and movement of bubbles in boiling water turns out to be a critical issue: “If instead of nice little bubbles leaving the surface of the fuel, you get a film of vapor forming, the temperature of the fuel rods can increase,” says Gilman. “When this happens, you have reached critical heat flux. The concern is that if the temperature of the fuel rods gets high enough, the structural integrity of the rods might be compromised, and even fail.” ... more
	Ekaterina Paramonova: A nuclear networker Ekaterina (Katia) Paramonova ’13 acknowledges starting Course 22 with some distinct advantages: both her father and grandfather work in the nuclear industry, and her Russian parents insisted on fluency in the language, opening up opportunities in another country with a well-established nuclear sector. Now this 19-year-old undergraduate is intent on leveraging her assets in some surprising ways, establishing a unique career track that intriguingly combines nuclear engineering and diplomacy. ... more
	Sara Ferry: A new generation works to fulfill the promise of nuclear energy The world of nuclear technology is in a generational transition. Many nuclear engineers and scientists were trained between the 1950s and 1970s, but entry to the field slowed in subsequent decades; NSE Ph.D. student Sara Ferry is part of a new cadre of technologists who are working to fulfill the promise of nuclear energy in a world very different from that of their predecessors. ... more
	Clarice Aiello: Finding quantum gold in diamond’s defect The kind of diamond Clarice Aiello values does not come in a dazzling pear or square cut, swaddled in black velvet on a counter at Tiffany’s. Instead, it exists as a millimeter-sized chunk on a sturdy table in a lab she built. What’s more, Aiello is not searching for perfection in her rock, but imperfection of a remarkable kind: a naturally occurring defect in the diamond’s lattice that, if manipulated properly, gives rise to quantum phenomena. ... more
	Ashley Finan: Developing better policy for energy innovation When Ashley Finan receives her Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering, it won’t be so much the culmination of an academic career as a milestone in a journey begun a decade ago. Finan credits some unique opportunities at MIT with setting her on a path toward a “place where it’s possible to make the most positive impact” on clean energy solutions and climate change. ... more
	Three Questions for Carol Kessler Non-Proliferation, and the Marriage of Technology and Policy. more
	Lin-wen Hu: Advancing MIT’s Educational Mission at the MIT Reactor Lab MIT's Research Reactor (MITR) may be small—it was only recently upgraded to 6 MW—but it plays a critical role not only in the education of MIT students, but on the national stage for advanced nuclear reactor fuel and materials research, according to Lin-wen Hu, the associate director of research development and utilization at the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (NRL).. more
	Bilge Yildiz: New Insights Into Material Surfaces Advance Energy Conversion Technologies Engineers developing advanced energy technologies like fuel cells, synthetic fuel production systems, and new-generation reactors will benefit from novel materials knowledge being developed at NSE's Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces, headed by Bilge Yildiz, the Norman C. Rasmussen Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Her team is working towards better understanding of the surface and interfacial properties of oxides, and learning to tailor the oxides' physical properties to make them highly active in fuel cell reactions, and more resistant to corrosion in reactor applications. more
	Anne White: Solving Mysteries in the Pursuit of Fusion Power Nuclear fusion is perhaps the most tantalizing energy technology in development today, with the potential to completely redefine the world's energy supply system. As part of NSE's broad effort to make fusion power a reality, Assistant Professor Anne White is building new understanding of the still-mysterious conditions inside tokamaks, the experimental test beds where fusion reactions occur at temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees. more
	Paola Cappellaro: A Quantum Engineer on the Frontier of Knowledge "Quantum engineering" is not yet a household term, but its possible impact on life in the 21st Century is enormous. This emerging discipline has the potential to revolutionize computing, precision measurement, materials science, and many other fields by harnessing the complex and often-baffling properties of sub-atomic particles. Moving this technology into reality is the mission of an NSE team led by Assistant Professor Paola Cappellaro. more
	Lisa Porter: A New Breed of Research for National Security Nuclear engineers are trained to tackle large, multi-disciplinary challenges. And Lisa Porter (B.S. in Nuclear Engineering, 1989) credits that perspective with helping her handle a national-security research management task that's more than a little daunting: developing innovations that have the potential to provide the U.S. with an "overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries." more
	Susan Landahl: Providing Power to Millions Overseeing the operation of a nuclear reactor is complex and challenging. Overseeing the operation of 17 nuclear reactors is even more complex and challenging, but it's business as usual for Susan Landahl (NUE '83, SM '84) in her role managing the largest nuclear power operation in the US. more