NPRE students shine at national ANS student conference

Again this year the American Nuclear Society at Illinois student chapter did very well at the national ANS Student Conference, garnering more awards than any other student section.

“The active, enthusiastic students in attendance were excellent representatives of the University of Illinois and the NPRE Department,” said Katy Huff, assistant professor in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering and faculty advisor to the ANS at Illinois group. “The unmatched accolades they earned for their technical presentations, posters, and other professional involvement demonstrated that NPRE Illinois students are both technically and professionally at the top of the nation.”

Among awards gained at the 2017 conference held in early April at the University of Pittsburgh was a Commendation for Service and Leadership for ANS at Illinois student chapter President Aristidis Loumis. In addition to promoting membership and activity in ANS among NPRE students throughout the past two years, Loumis was instrumental in encouraging the participation of the 36 NPRE students that attended the national student conference.

A total of 54 NPRE students attended the 2016 conference at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, and that group also brought home more prizes than any other university's student section. That effort, along with a substantial increase in Illinois student membership in ANS and other activities throughout the year, resulted in the Illinois chapter being honored with the 2016 Glasstone Award, recognizing the society’s most outstanding student section in the country.

Other awards received by NPRE students at the 2017 conference were:

• Second Place for Best Overall Paper and Best in Track, Reactor Physics: NPRE students Matthew E. Kabelitz and Xu Wu, and NPRE Assistant Prof. Tomasz Kozlowski, “Examination of Boundary Flux Anomalies in Scale Simulation Codes.”
• Best in Track, Fuel Cycle & Waste Management: NPRE student Jin Whan Bae, Huff, and NPRE Adjunct Prof. William R. Roy, “Benefits of Siting a Borehole Repository on Non-Operating Nuclear Facility.”
• Best in Track, Isotopes & Radiation: NPRE student Kelsey Luo, “Distributed Mobile Sensor Network for the Detection of Radioisotopes.”
• Best in Track, Nuclear Nonproliferation Safety: NPRE students Christian D. Zircher, Jon Helck and Loumis, and NPRE Assistant Prof. Clair J. Sullivan and NPRE Prof. Rizwan Uddin, “A Continuation of Radiation Sensor Network within a Virtual Environment.”