NSE - Nuclear Science & Engineering at MIT

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NSE Spotlight Archives :: 2011

New NSE strategy strengthens core, opens boundaries; seeks better integration of technical and societal issues

Nuclear technology is inextricably bound up with great issues — energy, international security, climate change, and the environment, to name a few. MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering department, as part of a broad re-orientation, has put in place a new strategic plan ... more

Carol Kessler

Spotlight on Women in NSE | Three Questions for Carol Kessler

Non-Proliferation, and the Marriage of Technology and Policy. more

Felix Parra

Spotlight on New NSE Faculty | Felix Parra returns to NSE’s fusion program

Nuclear fusion has tremendous potential to provide clean, safe power generation on a grand scale, but realizing that potential has challenged researchers worldwide for decades. more

Kord Smith

Spotlight on New NSE Faculty | Kord Smith brings 30 years of simulation insight to NSE

Increasingly powerful computation technology has long been central to the advancement of reactor engineering and nuclear power generation. Few people have played a greater role in that process — or have more knowledge to share — than Kord Smith. more

Ju Li

Spotlight on New NSE Faculty | Ju Li: Atomic insights for new materials development

Nuclear engineering and materials science are distinct but related fields. Newly appointed BEA Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering Ju Li will straddle the two. more

Lin-wen Hu

Spotlight on Women in NSE | Lin-wen Hu: Advancing MIT’s Educational Mission at the MIT Reactor Lab

MIT's Research Reactor (MITR) 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

Spotlight on Women in NSE | 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

Spotlight on Women in NSE | 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

Spotlight on Women in NSE | 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

NSE Alums Turnage, Coxe and Rothrock

Distinguished NSE Alums Turnage, Coxe and Rothrock Illuminate The Business Side of Nuclear Technology

Virtually all engineers want to make a positive impact on society. Technical knowledge is necessary for achieving this goal, but not sufficient, especially in a field like nuclear engineering, where broad economic, political, and business issues are intimately entwined with the technology. Students in NSE department head Richard Lester's Managing Nuclear Technology class recently got a high-level perspective on these aspects of technology leadership at first hand in guest lectures by three distinguished NSE alumni – senior utility executive Joe Turnage (SM ‘70, Ph.D. ‘72), consultant Ray Coxe (BS, ‘82, Ph.D. '88), and venture capitalist Ray Rothrock (SM ‘78). more

Lisa Porter

Spotlight on NSE Alumni | 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

Spotlight on NSE Alumni | 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