NPRE thanks those alumni who participated in Thursday’s Student Professional Excellence in Engineering Development (SPEED)-Interchange event focusing on several national laboratories’ general and career information.
Participating were:
- Dr. John B.O. Caughman, II, MS 1986, PhD 1986, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since joining the research staff at ORNL in 1992, Caughman has concentrated on microwaves and high-power radio frequency (RF) antenna systems for fusion applications. Current fusion-related research includes development of a high plasma heat flux device for fusion material testing (Proto- MPEX), plasma heating/current drive on NSTX-U, and study of high-voltage RF breakdown and near-field plasma interactions in antenna structures for magnetic fusion applications. In the area of non-fusion related research, he has extensive experience in the plasma processing of materials, including plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition and nanomaterial growth, creation of standards for RF plasma processing in semiconductor manufacturing, and RF heating of materials. In addition to his NPRE degrees, Caughman earned a B.S. in 1984 in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina.
Dr. James L. Hill, MS 1994, PhD 1998, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Hill participates in the Foreign Nuclear Weapons Intelligence Initiative, a component within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that engages Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore weapons physicists to analyze and assess nuclear weapons-related intelligence. He has worked as part of LANL’s Transport Methods group, modeling nuclear test diagnostics, and in the lab’s software development operation, to which he contributed to one of the Advanced Stategic Computing (ASC) weapons simulation codes. He began at LANL as a graduate student, working in the Primary Design and Analysis group of the Applied Physics (X) Division. Hill was the primary point of contact for the W78 ICBM warhead and one of the key personnel for assessing nuclear safety, particularly of operations at the Pantex plant in Texas.
- Dr. Prashant Jain, MS 2006, PhD 2010, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jain is a R&D staff member in the Thermal Hydraulics and Irradiation Engineering group of the Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division at ORNL. His primary research interests are in computational fluid dynamics, advanced multi-physics
simulations, lattice Boltzmann method and parallel scientific software development. At ORNL, Jain is developing an advanced multiphysics safety basis model for the present HEU and the future LEU core of the High Flux Isotope Reactor. He also serves as an independent safety reviewer for the 238Pu production program and a design engineer for the Chinese CRADA project on the molten salt cooled reactors. In addition to his NPRE degrees, he received B.Tech. (2004) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
- Dr. Meimei Li, MS 1999, PhD 2003, Argonne National Laboratory. joined the Nuclear Engineering Division at ANL in 2008. Before coming to Argonne,
Li was a postdoctoral associate in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She had previously worked at the China Institute of Atomic Energy before she came to the United States. Her research interests include irradiation damage and effects, microstructure characterization with electron and X-ray beams, mechanical property testing, and liquid metal corrosion.In addition to her NPRE degrees, Dr. Li earned her B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao-tong University, China.
The guests toured NPRE facilities, met with faculty and students, and presented discussions on their respective labs.
Thursday’s event was the first of a series of panels that marks the evolution of NPRE’s Interchange event. For years, NPRE and the student chapter of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) have hosted Interchange to promote employer-student networking. NPRE alumni and friends have been invited to campus to talk about their companies to students, as well as offer opportunities for internships and/or permanent positions. With a similar mission, the new SPEED-Interchange features a series of panel sessions to be held in both the Fall and Spring semesters, with specific subject matter targeted for both panelists and students.
A panel of experts on nuclear power utilities, support industries and design companies will be planned for January or February, and one for plasma/fusion technologies and radiological imaging and detection will be planned for March. Alumni and friends interested in participating in the panels and engaging with our students are invited to contact Becky Meline, NPRE Coordinator of Academic Programs, bmeline@illinois.edu, for details.
See more photos on NPRE's Facebook page.