News Archive

Engineering at Illinois Engineering at Illinois

News Archive

ANS President Visits NPRE
Sharing his goal of “Getting It Done,” Dr. Thomas L. Sanders, president of the American Nuclear Society, interacted with NPRE students and faculty October 19 and 20 and presented the Department’s Tuesday graduate seminar while visiting the Urbana campus. The “It” Sanders refers to is...
Homecoming Visitors Advise NPRE Students on Careers
Nuclear engineering jobs are plentiful NPRE students were assured recently by a panel of alumni and department friends who are working in the field. Fifteen visitors came to campus during Homecoming Friday, October 9, to tell students about careers in nuclear engineering. The Alumni Homecoming...
NPRE Grad Student Gains Lifetime Experience at World...
Treated to addresses from world-renown experts including Hans Blix, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and given the opportunity to work with young nuclear scientists from across the planet, NPRE graduate student J’Tia Taylor gained the experience of a lifetime...
Sampson Autobiography Chronicled in The Journal of African...
A recollection of the prejudices and eventual triumphs NPRE alumnus Henry T. Sampson, Jr., experienced as he worked to become a successful nuclear engineer and author are detailed in the Spring 2009 edition of The Journal of African American History. "Autobiographies and 'life-writings' are some...
Midwest experts agree on recommendations for nuclear waste...
Fifty thousand dry casks of spent nuclear fuel have nowhere to go for long-term storage. Yucca Mountain in Nevada appears to be all but dead as an option. So now is the time to create specific institutions, funds and financial incentives to manage the spent fuel at the power plants where it was...
NPRE Undergraduate Enrollment Climbs
In response to this country's renewed interest in nuclear energy, the number of incoming freshmen and transfer students to the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) this fall is the largest in decades. "We are happy to see this renewed interest in nuclear...
New plasma technique provides cleaner surfaces in computer...
A group from the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions has gained a patent on a non-contact method that uses plasma to clean very small dust and contamination particles from surfaces in the making of computer chips. The technique is used to remove contamination from semiconductor wafers and...
NPRE Recognizes Student Award Winners
The Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiologial Engineering recognized almost 90 students as well as several faculty members and alumni during the department’s 2009 Honors Banquet. Following is a list of students honored and their awards: • Carlos A. Altamirano of Davie, Florida: American...
NPRE students receive DOE fellowship, scholarships
Congratulations are due NPRE graduate student Ian Percel and eight NPRE undergraduates, the recent recipients of a fellowship and scholarships, respectively, from the U.S. Department of Energy. The awards are part of the $2.9 million Nuclear Energy Universities Program (NEUP) the DOE has initiated...
DOE Awards Illinois' Scientists $1.5 Million for Next...
A group of University of Illinois' researchers led by Jim Stubbins, professor and head of the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, have been awarded nearly $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for research in developing the next generation of nuclear...
Carlson, Tsoulfanidis are NPRE’s Distinguished Alumni for...
NPRE alumni David D. Carlson (MS 1976) and Nicholas Tsoulfanidis (MS 1965, PhD 1968) were honored with the 2009 NPRE Distinguished Alumni Award. Cited "for his leadership in advancing nuclear power reactor risk management to benefit our nation's nuclear deterrent, and for his loyal support of...
College Honors NPRE Alumnus Henry T. Sampson, Jr.
Henry T. Sampson, Jr. (MS 1965, PhD 1967), was one of eight College of Engineering alumni honored on May 1, 2009, with the Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. Sampson was cited for inventions, including the gamma electric cell; contributions concerning direct conversion of nuclear energy to...
Ruzic Wins Undergraduate Research Award
In his two-dozen years as an NPRE faculty member, Prof. David N. Ruzic has recruited hundreds of undergraduates to work in his laboratories. "I believe that an engineering undergraduate education isn't complete unless a student is immersed in the actual creation of engineering knowledge and...
Singer wins award for international work
Clifford E. Singer, a professor of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering and expert on international security and energy issues, is the 2008 winner of the Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement. The honor recognizes Singer's prominence in...
NPRE Grad Student Selected as Fellow in WNU Summer Institute
J'Tia Taylor, a graduate student in nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering, has been selected as a Fellow of the 2009 World Nuclear University Summer Institute, to be held July 5 through August 14 at the University of Oxford. The Summer Institute is open to about 100 WNU Fellows from some...
Top of the Morning to You!
NPRE PhD student Josh Spencer celebrated St. Patrick's Day 2009 in style Tuesday by sporting his beret and kilt (green in color, of course!). Of Irish and Scottish descent, Spencer has been playing bagpipes for 15 years now, from Montana to Illinois and everywhere inbetween. He's even played in...
Construction Nearly Complete in Thin Film Lab
Brent Heuser, a professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE), and his graduate students have nearly finished the construction of a magnetron sputtering system that will be used to investigate nuclear fuel matrices for advanced burner reactors. Starting in...
Student's research leads to meeting new Secretary of Energy
While conducting research at national labs in California recently, Stefano Markidis (right), a graduate student in Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering, met and was photographed with newly appointed Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (middle). Pictured at left is Pavel Ni, a staff member at...
NPRE Student is 2008 CERL Research Assistant of the Year
Benjamin C. Masters, a doctoral student in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering, has been chosen as the 2008 Research Assistant of the Year by the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL). Working at CERL for the past year, Masters said his research...
Dissertation Results in Book for NPRE PhD
All PhD students conclude their studies by writing a dissertation, but it's rare when a dissertation becomes a book. NPRE graduate Martin Neumann’s work is one of the rarities. Lithium Sputtering, Deposition and Evaporation: Controlled Thin Film Engineering, first published in June by VDM...
NPRE at 50: A Golden Celebration!
Fifty years of nuclear engineering programs at the University of Illinois were celebrated in golden style September 11-13, as alumni and friends of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering reflected on past accomplishments and learned more about plans and challenges for the future. NRC...
UI-7 to air NPRE adjunct professor's lecture
UI-7, the cable TV service at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will air a lecture by NPRE Adjunct Assistant Professor Michael Aref on Thursday, October 16 at 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., and on Saturday, October 18 at 10 a.m. Aref first gave the lecture, "Mass Transport Modeling of...
Visiting Federal Nuclear Chair to be Featured on Focus 580
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Chairman Dale E. Klein, who will be visiting campus early this fall, will be featured in a WILL Focus 580 interview on Friday, September 5, starting at 10:06 a.m. Central Daylight Time. Focus 580 Host David Inge will chat with Klein regarding "The Future of Nuclear...
Uddin named NCSA Faculty Fellow
NPRE Prof. Rizwan Uddin has been named a Faculty Fellow of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the 2008-2009 academic year. Uddin was awarded the fellowship to help support his project, "Parallel, Modified Nodal...
Open House Set for Professor Hang's 90th Birthday
NPRE will help celebrate a milestone this Saturday (June 14, 2008)--the 90th birthday of Prof. Emeritus Daniel F. Hang. Professor Hang's family will host an Open House from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the lobby of the Krannert Center for Performing Arts (500 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana). All friends and...
NPRE alumnus honored for scholarship efforts
The University of Illinois Alumni Association has chosen NPRE alumnus Michael J. Giacobbe III ( BS 1991, MS 1995, PhD 1999, Nuclear Engineering) to receive the 2008 Loyalty Award. Established in 1957, the award is bestowed upon Illinois alumni who have made significant, notable, and meritorious...
Open House brings together faculty, students, alumni, and...
On April 25, about 40 people, including representatives from five different companies, toured Professor David Ruzic’s laboratory during an Open House at the Center for Plasma Material Interactions in the Nuclear Radiation Laboratory on the Illinois campus. Those touring the lab--where...
NPRE Alumnus honored as College of Engineering...
Kenneth D. Lewis, Dean of the College of Science, Mathematics, Technology and Engineering at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., and an NPRE alumnus, has been recognized with the 2008 College of Engineering Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. Lewis earned his PhD in NPRE in...
NPRE Graduate Student Recognized for Volunteer Efforts
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs will recognize NPRE graduate student Yun Di with the 2008 Joseph H. Smith Student Leadership Award for his contributions to the Chinese student community on the Urbana campus. Di will be recognized May 3 during a reception at the Illini Union...
Military action to influence oil-producing nations...
There is another inconvenient truth about finite resources and human behavior on Planet Earth, an expert on international security and energy says. Trying to influence oil supply with military force in the Middle East is not only ineffective, it also is counterproductive. So says Clifford...
College Recognizes NPRE Professor and Undergrad
NPRE Professor Roy Axford and undergraduate student Lizette Sanchez have been selected to receive the 2008 Rose Award for Teaching Excellence and the William R. Schowalter Award, respectively. Axford has been with the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering Department since 1966. The first...