Dr. Yassin Hassan, an alumnus of Illinois Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
Election to NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Members have distinguished themselves in business and academic management, in technical positions, as university faculty, and as leaders in government and private engineering organizations. Individuals in the newly elected class will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Oct. 6.
Hassan is cited for his work on experimentally validated thermal hydraulic analyses of multiphase flow fields for nuclear reactor operations. He joined Texas A&M University in September 1986 and is the Sallie & Don Davis '61 Professor in Engineering, a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Hassan has earned many honors during his tenure. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He was awarded the 2008 ANS Seaborg Medal (an award that recognizes an individual who has made outstanding scientific or engineering research contributions to the development of the uses of nuclear energy), the 2003 George Westinghouse Gold Medal Award (for distinguished and notable achievements in the power field of mechanical engineering), the 2004 Thermal Hydraulics Technical Achievement Award (the highest award given by the Thermal Hydraulic Division of ANS in recognition of contributions to nuclear engineering education and research), and the 2001 Glenn Murphy Award of the ASME (in recognition of outstanding contributions in nuclear safety through research and education).
In 2007 Hassan was sworn in as a part-time technical judge to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He has authored more than 470 refereed publications in technical journals and conference proceedings (190 technical journals and 285 conferences) and more than 370 summaries in ANS transactions (the largest for any ANS member since the establishment of ANS in 1950). He also serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Design and is associate editor of the Journal of Verification, Validation and Uncertainty Quantification. He was appointed as an honorary professor in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Bangor University in the United Kingdom.
Hassan earned a master’s degree and PhD in NPRE in 1975 and 1980, respectively. He also holds a 1985 master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia, and a 1968 bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Alexandria, Egypt. The late Prof. Emeritus Barclay G. Jones was Hassan’s advisor in NPRE.