Chair
Mark Norsworthy
Mark received his S.B. and S.M. degrees in Nuclear Science and Engineering from MIT in 2010. As of Spring 2011, he is a Ph.D. pre-candidate in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan. He is supported by the NNSA’s Nuclear Nonproliferation and International Safeguards Graduate Fellowship. In addition, he is pursuing a graduate certificate in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Ford School of Public Policy. His technical research area is accelerator-based active interrogation for nuclear nonproliferation.
Mark is a Co-Vice Chair of the 2011 Delegation and was a member of the 2010 Delgation. He has held internships at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Defense, and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. During these internships he focused on various aspects of nuclear energy and nuclear defense policy, including emergency preparedness and response to nuclear terrorism. Mark enjoys traveling, playing pool, and discussing nuclear policy issues.
Co-Vice Chairs
Matthew Gidden
Matthew is a Ph.D. graduate student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison studying nuclear engineering and energy policy. He previously attended Texas A&M University where he received a B.S. in nuclear engineering. Matthew currently works in the Fuel Cycle Research Group at UW – Madison under Professor Paul Wilson. His research interest is primarily fuel-cycle simulation and analysis and related policy topics, such as used-fuel recycling, long-term fuel storage, and nuclear nonproliferation.
Matthew is an active member of the American Nuclear Society, serving as the 2008 Student Conference Co- Chair as well as participating in the governance of ANS at the national level. He has previously held internship positions at both Oak Ridge National Laboratory working on the detection of illicit radioactive materials and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory working on automated verification techniques. He has also had the opportunity to work for AREVA in Paris, France on both the transportation of used nuclear fuel as well as nuclear reactor accident analysis.
Shaheen Dewji
Shaheen Azim Dewji is a Ph.D. candidate in the Nuclear & Radiological Engineering Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, having studied at both the Atlanta, GA and Metz, France campuses. She received her B.Sc. in Physics from the University of British Columbia in 2006 and has participated in the Education Abroad Program at UC-Berkeley. She has completed a Masters in Nuclear Engineering in 2009 at Georgia Tech in assaying internal contamination using handheld radiation detectors in the event of a radiological dispersion device for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2008-2009, Dewji was a Pre- Doctoral Fellow of the Sam Nunn Security Program at Georgia Tech and has been pursuing her interests in safeguards applications and nuclear security policy. She is currently interning at Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the NESLS/NGSI program, collaborating on safeguards research on integrated simulation and radiation detection methods for natural uranium conversion facilities. Dewji is currently a fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies “Nuclear Scholars Initiative” program.
Delegates
Oluwatomi Akindele
Oluwatomi is pursuing a B.S degree in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University. She plans on pursuing a master’s degree in nuclear engineering after graduation. At Texas A&M, Oluwatomi is an active member of the Student Engineer’s Council, serving on the executive council this past year.
Oluwatomi has held internships with the Department of Defense and Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. Her technical interest include nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear forensics techniques. Currently, Oluwatomi works at the Texas A&M Thermal Hydraulics Lab conducting research with nanofluid boiling utilizing particle image velocity.
Samuel Brinton
Samuel is completing a double M.S. program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Nuclear Engineering and the Technology and Policy Program. They are a graduate from Kansas State University with a B.S. in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and a B.A. in Vocal Music Performance and a minor in Chinese Language. Their research interests are concentrated on nuclear fuel cycle system analysis with subtopics of interest including fuel cycle economics and dry cask storage analysis.
Samuel has had internships at the Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Dow Chemical Company in various projects relating to nuclear engineering and systems analysis. They are a strong activist in a variety of civil rights and nonproliferation issues and finds that only with a constant interaction with our legislative representatives can we hope to make true and lasting impacts on policy. In their spare time Samuel enjoys running, singing with choirs and opera companies, and cheering for the K-State Wildcats and MIT Engineers.
Andrew Cartas
Andrew is a Ph.D. student at the University of Florida studying Nuclear Engineering where he obtained his B.S. in Nuclear Engineering in 2011. His current research focus is on nuclear fuel fabrication, utilizing depleted Uranium, and material performance under irradiation. Andrew has also focused his research efforts on Silicon Carbide as a fuel additive and matrix material for UO2.
Andrew has been heavily involved in the University of Florida ANS student section having served two years as treasurer and is the outgoing section president. During the summer of 2011, he was selected to be the student chair for the 2011 ANS National Conference in Hollywood, FL. He is currently serving on ANS National Subcommittee for Disbursement of ANS Travel Funds to Students. Andrew has interned at Argonne National Lab and participated in the Nondestructive Assay Applications for International Safeguards program held at Oak Ridge National Lab.
Lily Crabtree
Lily Crabtree is a nuclear engineering PhD student under Dr. Howard Hall in the Institute for Nuclear Security at the University of Tennessee. Her academic interests include nuclear forensic science, radiochemistry, nuclear security, global nuclear policy, nuclear nonproliferation, and education and outreach. Her current research focuses on the construction and analysis of a solvent extraction system to study small-scale uranium conversion operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Wesley Deason
Wesley is currently pursuing a master of science degree in nuclear engineering at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. He previously attended Texas A&M University in College Station, TX where he obtained a bachelor of science degree in nuclear engineering. In his work as a graduate research assistant under Dr. Andrew Klein, he is studying the application of vented fuel in fast breeder reactor designs.
Wesley is also active outside of his academic pursuits. As the student liaison for the Aerospace Nuclear Science and Technology Division of the American Nuclear Society, Wesley has interests in the application of nuclear technology to space exploration and he interned as a student fellow for the Center for Space Nuclear Research in Idaho Falls, ID where he worked on reactor designs for nuclear electric and nuclear thermal propulsion systems. Additionally, he is interested in nuclear science and STEM education of our nation’s youth and its importance for moving our nation forward to a better future.
Savannah Fitzwater
Savannah is currently pursuing a M.S. in Nuclear Science and Engineering and a M.S. in International Political Economy of Resources at the Colorado School of Mines. Her research focuses on uncertainty quantification in safeguards measurement across the nuclear fuel cycle. Before attending Colorado School of Mines, she earned a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Missouri S&T in 2011. Savannah has completed internships at Idaho National Laboratory in nuclear nonproliferation and reactor operations, along with space nuclear research at the Center for Space Nuclear Research based in Idaho Falls, ID. Savannah is very active in Women in Nuclear, as well as being a member of the American Nuclear Society and the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management.
Douglas Fynan
Shadi Ghrayeb
Shadi Ghrayeb is currently a PhD candidate and U.S. Department of Energy fellow in Nuclear Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a graduate from Pennsylvania State University with a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering (Department of Energy Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Fellowship Program) and Master of International Affairs. He received his B.S. in Nuclear and Engineering Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His technical research interests are primary in the areas of reactor physics, computational modeling and simulation and nuclear fuel cycle.
Shadi has had a total of eight internships at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and the International Atomic Energy Agency in various technical and policy projects related to nuclear science and technology. Following the 2012 Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation Shadi served as a congressional fellow on nuclear matters for a member of congress in the U.S. House of Representatives. Shadi was twice selected as a winner of the Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Award. When not crunching numbers and writing computer codes, Shadi enjoys jogging and reading in his spare time.
Mahima Gupta
Mark Reed
Mark has received his S.B. degree in Physics as well as his S.B. and S.M. degrees in Nuclear Science and Engineering from MIT, and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. His past research includes magnetic confinement fusion and its application as a neutron source in fission-fusion hybrid systems, enhanced fission yield modeling techniques, and strategic plant siting in the context of seismic history. His current doctoral research focuses on the neutronic effects of geometric distortions in fast reactors.
He has performed reactor modeling at TerraPower and risk assessment for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In his pre-nuclear life, he was an engineering project management intern for the iPhone 3G at Apple and a research assistant at the Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences. Passionate about nuclear policy, he has published a series of six articles on the history of nuclear technology, served as a speechwriter for an elected official, and conceived the 2013 American Nuclear Society Student Conference theme “Public Image of the Nuclear Engineer”. In his spare time, he pursues his affinities for hiking, making random iPhone applications, and composing awkward third-person autobiographies.
Eric Terpening
Eric is a Ph.D. pre-candidate in Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University where he works with the CASL program. Eric received his B.S. degree in Physics from Western Illinois University in spring 2011, with minor concentrations in mathematics and philosophy. His current research interests involve reduced order modeling for the evaluation of atomistic properties using molecular dynamics simulations, with the end goal to simulate radiation damage in bulk materials. He also held an internship at Brookhaven National Laboratory where he investigated the possibility of soil activation from neutrons scattered by the beam stop on one of their particle accelerators.
Eric has long been a supporter of increased STEM funding, and believes this is the only way to cultivate the scientists that will make the discoveries that could change the world. In his free time Eric enjoys disc golf and biking, as well as host of other outdoor activities.
Nicholas Thompson
Nicholas is a Ph.D. student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) studying Nuclear Engineering and Science. He graduated RPI in 2011 with a B.S. and an M.Eng. in Nuclear Engineering. He has previously held two summer internships at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, and from 2010 to 2011, was an undergraduate researcher at the Gaerttner Linear Accelerator Center (LINAC) Laboratory at RPI.
Nick’s current research focuses on using a Lead Slowing-Down Spectrometer (LSDS) for measuring various nuclear data. In particular, two of the projects he is working on are to make capture cross section measurements and fission fragment distribution measurements, both with the LINAC and RPI LSDS. While working as an undergraduate researcher, Nick helped research and perform experiments with the RPI LSDS to assay plutonium and uranium with the goal of nondestructively assaying spent fuel. Nick is an NRC licensed Senior Reactor Operator, was selected as a winner of the Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Award in 2011, and was a recipient of a 2014 NAYGN Excellence Award. He was also the President of the RPI ANS section from 2012-2013. Nick was also an NESD delegate in 2012, and one of the Co-Vice Chairs in 2013. Some of Nick’s research interests include nuclear data, reactor design, accelerator technologies and applications, and nuclear energy policy. Nick is an avid skier, enjoys playing billiards, and believes that cheap, clean, reliable, safe nuclear power can help the economy and the environment.
Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation 