Chair
Samantha Winkle
Samantha Winkle is currently a master’s student in Nuclear Engineering with an academic focus on Nuclear Forensics at the University of Utah. Samantha’s research focus is in nuclear safeguards, security and non-proliferation and she is supported by an NRC Graduate Fellowship. Her current work centers on safeguards verifications using Cherenkov radiation and developing curricula for courses that tie the technical world of nuclear engineering with the policy side of the nuclear industry. She has recently been awarded a Nuclear Engineering Graduate Fellowship position working for NNSA Office NA-532.
Samantha is active in the American Nuclear Society (ANS) both nationally and locally. She has long held positions on the University of Utah’s ANS Student Chapter Board, having previously held the positions of Recruitment Officer, Communication and Company Relations Officer and Vice-President, and President, as well as being appointed to serve on the ANS Membership Committee. She currently serves as the Graduate Student Advisor for her student chapter.
Samantha’s interests include nuclear safety, nuclear policy and educating the general public about nuclear energy. Outside of academics she enjoys playing video games, cross-stitching and volunteering with the Girl Scouts.
Co-Vice Chairs
Maggie Byers
Maggie Flicker Byers is currently a master’s student in the Nuclear and Radiation Engineering program at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her B.S. in chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2013. In pursuing her desires to apply her scientific background to environmental concerns, she joined Dr. Erich Schneider’s nuclear fuel cycle group in the fall of 2013. After finishing her master’s thesis in the summer of 2015 she plans to continue on to obtain her PhD in the same program.
Her current research is focused on nuclear fuel supply security. The recovery of uranium from seawater is a project currently under development by Oak Ridge and Pacific Northwest National Labs along with many university partners as it is believed to be a back stop technology for conventional mining. Maggie’s work deals specifically with the cost and energy analysis of the industrial scale up of a passive uranium recovery system. Her master thesis will detail the creation of an optimization tool used to minimize recovery cost by varying system and design parameters.
Maggie aspires to be engaged in the engineering community and spread its benefits to others. She is an active member of the American Nuclear Society at the national level,having served as a student program co-chair at an ANS annual meeting. She continues to hold the position of graduate event coordinator at UT’s Women in Mechanical Engineering program in order to foster community among women in the department. She also maintains the role of outreach chair in the ANS chapter at UT with the goal of educating fellow university members and the general public on the many benefits of nuclear power. Outside of these school, she serves as a volunteer math and science tutor for Girl Scout’s Troop 1500, which iscomposed of young girls with incarcerated mothers.
Maxwell Daniels
Maxwell is a master’s student at Idaho State University (ISU) studying Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSEN). He graduated ISU in May 2015 with a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering. Currently he holds a senior reactor operator (SRO) license at the AGN-201 research reactor where he conducts research on materials reactivity analysis and creates outreach efforts to educate the public on nuclear energy concepts. Prior to this position, Maxwell has interned as both a mechanical and process engineer.
Maxwell’s current research focuses on the design, build, and implementation of a solid-state reactor control console at the AGN-201. Previously, Maxwell has performed research on criticality safety and alternative uses of small modular reactors (SMRs). His research interests include advanced reactor concepts, nuclear energy policy, and nuclear aerospace applications. Maxwell is active in both the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM). He currently presides over the INMM student chapter at ISU and has previously served as an officer in the ISU student chapter of the ANS. In his spare time, Maxwell enjoys video games, hiking, and power lifting.
Delegates
Rasheed Auguste
Rasheed Auguste is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Department of Physics. His current research at MIT and undergraduate thesis is focused on fouling issues in light-water reactors. This summer, he is conducting research with materials for molten-salt reactors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His previous experience includes internships with the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy, Fermilab, and Draper Laboratories.
Elizabeth Chaffin
Timothy Crook
I was born in Texas and grew up in Mississippi, returning to Texas to study nuclear and mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University. I am currently serving as a Graduate Research Assistant working on my master’s degree under Dr. Yassin Hassan. My research efforts have been focused on supporting Risk-Informed resolution to GSI-191 using RELAP5- 3D for thermal hydraulic simulations. My thesis focuses on alternative coolant flow path modelling in RELAP and their importance during debris-induced core blockages, a possible downstream effect postulated under GSI-191. My interests currently include advanced nuclear design and deployment, behavioral economics, biking, brewing coffee/beer/kombucha, bowling, cooking, energy markets, environmental regulation, probablistic risk assessment, thermal hydraulics, yoga, and getting tickets to the Hamilton musical.
Dane de Wet
Dane de Wet recently graduated with his B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. During his time at UT, he researched instrumentation and controls for advanced reactors under Dr. Belle R. Upadhyaya where he designed flow loops that utilized innovative instrumentation and control techniques. He also worked for Dr. Howard Hall and Dr. Joe Stainback at the Institute for Nuclear Security where he focused on international safeguards and implementing nuclear power programs in newcomer countries. As part of his research, he helped design safeguards for molten salt reactors. He then moved on to modeling the neutronics of a molten salt breeder reactor based on the original designs by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After graduating, he moved over to Oak Ridge National Laboratory as an intern where he is helping develop a thermal hydraulic model of the original Molten Salt Reactor Experiment in order to help restore modeling capabilities for MSRs as part of an effort in developing the next generation of nuclear power plants. He will be attending the UC Berkeley in the fall, where he will be pursuing his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering as a NEUP Fellow. Dane also enjoys messing with 3D printers, traveling, and hiking in the Smoky Mountains.
Jordan Evans
Jordan Evans was born and raised near Houston, Texas. He earned his B.S. in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University (TAMU) in 2011, with a thesis related to resolving the “corrosion problem” associated with the advanced liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR). He earned his M.S. in nuclear engineering from TAMU in 2013, and his thesis topic, “Improving Targeted Radionuclide Therapy using Nuclear Nanotechnology”, won 1st prize in the TAMU annual university-wide research competition, Student Research Week, for developing a cancer therapy which dramatically reduces side effects and radiative dose to healthy tissue as compared to traditional external beam radiation therapy. Jordan has conducted research in collaboration with Shell Oil Company, Westinghouse Electric Company, Lockheed Martin, and others. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering with a focus on nuclear nanomaterials at the TAMU Fuel Cycle and Materials Laboratory (FCML) under Dr. Sean McDeavitt. His Ph.D. research is related to additively manufactured and nuclear nanomaterials resistant to radiation damage at high temperatures. Jordan is an active member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), the International Thorium Energy Organization (IThEO), and the National Eagle Scout Association.
Matt Glattfelder
Matthew S. Glattfelder is currently a senior nuclear engineering student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Matt worked in conjunction with ThorCon Power on his senior design: A Small Modular Reactor (SMR) intended to be constructed and operated with shipyard productivity and United States Navy-calibur precision.
On campus, Matt is an active member in the Delta chapter of Triangle Fraternity, where he has held numerous positions including Vice President, Recruitment, Public Relations & Communications, and Information Systems.
Matt came to pursue a degree in Nuclear Engineering after experiencing the benefit that scientific and technical knowledge has in the arena of politics and diplomacy during high-school Model United Nations conferences. Guided by his experience during the National Student Leadership Conference on Intelligence and National Security, Matt has found himself a student by trade, an engineer by profession, and a political theorist by inclination. A graduate of Tandem Friends School in Charlottesville, Virginia, Matt holds environmental stewardship and professional integrity in high regard.
Andrew Greenop
Andrew Greenop is currently a PhD candidate for Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.S. in Mathematics from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN in 2012. He then obtained his M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley in May of 2016.
His undergraduate engineering senior design project was incorporating alternative energy sources to extend the battery life of an electric bicycle. This work was part of the motivation for him to go into energy research and eventually into nuclear engineering. For his graduate work, he currently works in the Thermal Hydraulics labs in the Nuclear Department at UC Berkeley, which focuses on the development and design of the Mark 1 Pebble-Bed Fluoride Salt Cooled High Temperature Reactor (Mk1 PB-FHR). His focus is on simulation, design optimization, and experimental modeling of the Coiled Tube Gas Heater (CTGH), which couples the molten salt primary loop with an air Brayton power conversion cycle. The CTGH also can be used with different advanced reactor designs. He is currently studying applications for the CTGH that include sodium reactors coupled with supercritical carbon dioxide and a Chinese experimental molten salt test reactor coupled with an air Brayton cycle.
Andrew became involved in ANS during graduate school where he started studying nuclear engineering. He has been involved with many of the local chapter’s events and meeting. During his free time, Andrew enjoys traveling, running, cycling, reading, windsurfing, and cooking.
Garon Morgan
Garon Morgan is an undergraduate student pursuing a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a Nuclear Concentration at Virginia Commonwealth University. Garon is a summer intern in the Next Generation Safeguards Internship program under the mentorship of Dr. Scott Thompson. During the summer internship Garon’s research will focus on modeling nondestructive assay measurements of uranium hexafluoride in storage cylinders. Furthermore, Garon is a member of the 2016 Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation and will have the chance to learn and influence Nuclear Policy. Garon will also be working on Verification and Validation of CASL PWR suite of codes, provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for the upcoming academic year. Garon has a strong desire to learn the many facets of nuclear engineering, and is open to any new opportunities.
Christopher Morrison
Christopher Morrison grew up in New Mexico and was heavily influenced by the Sandia and Los Alamos Laboratories’ STEM outreach program to become an engineer. He obtained his B.S. degrees in computer science and aerospace engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. While considering career option upon graduation from he realized that nuclear power must play a key role in both the fight against global warming and is a key piece of technology for humanity to reach beyond Earth’s orbit and into the Solar System. Chris chose to pursue his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and is now in the 4th year of his graduate studies. His dissertation research involves studying composite nuclear fuels which can be engineered at the micrometer scale to have better safety properties – specifically analyzing the ability to enhance prompt Doppler feedback (See http://bit.ly/1s0alhL). Chris is a Nuclear Engineering University Program (NEUP) fellow. He is engaged and to be married in September of 2017 to his princess Jacqueline Brunelli, an electrical engineer. Chris is also a software entrepreneur and hopes to take his passion for entrepreneurship into the nuclear field in the future.
Robert Olsen
Robert Olsen is studying environmental engineering at Utah State University. He is a senior and will graduate in May, 2017. Robert has active duty status with the U.S. Navy and will commission as an officer upon graduation. He will teach in the navy’s Nuclear Power School for five years.
Robert is the Immediate Past President of Utah State University’s chapter of the American Nuclear Society. In 2015, he worked as an intern at Idaho National Laboratory and assisted in site-wide management of radioactive materials. Robert is married with one son.
Logan Michael Scott
Logan Michael Scott is a PhD graduate student at Texas A&M University studying nuclear engineering under Dr. Jean Ragusa. Scott graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. At TAMU, he is a part of the Reactor Physics and Computational Science research group that focuses on a variety of areas ranging from large-scale scientific simulations to reactor neutronics. His research interests include transient fuel testing and development of full core analytical methods.
Scott is currently investigating the localized effects of thermal Doppler broadening on test vehicles within the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility in coordination with Idaho National Laboratories. As an intern at the Laboratory, he is also investigating methods of fuel motion monitoring for test samples within TREAT.
In 2013, Scott served as an American Nuclear Society intern within the Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) program, which strives to equip engineers with the training to effectively inform policy decisions. His research, in coordination with the Wentz Foundation, investigated the economic incentivization of domestic production of molybdenum-99 for medical applications. Other research efforts include development of sustainable acculturation process for blue-green algae strains for ethanol development, as well as intellectual property and industry ethics under Dr. Martin High at Oklahoma State University.
Scott is an active member in the American Nuclear Society, Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has also served as lead and assistant lecturer for a diverse lecture series in Cambridge, United Kingdom ranging from medicine to travel narrative and cultural geography.
Paolo Venneri
Paolo Venneri grew up in Los Alamos, NM where he had early exposure to science and engineering due to the proximity of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received a B.A. in Physics and International Studies from Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN. During his time at Macalester he specialized in Asia- US relations as well as neutron detectors for safeguards applications. After having graduated from Macalester he chose to pursue first a M.S. and then a PhD in Nuclear and Quantum Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST). There he is a member of the Reactor Core Design and Transmutation Lab under the direction of Dr. Yonghee Kim. He is now in the 4th year of his graduate studies focusing on the implementation of low enriched uranium fuel for space applications.
Robert Patrick White
Patrick White is a fourth-year PhD student in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department at MIT, focusing on nuclear reactor licensing and regulation. Patrick was a graduate researcher on the 2018 MIT “Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World” study and co-authored report sections on licensing issues related to advanced nuclear reactor deployment worldwide. His current doctoral work is on developing new safety analysis and design methods to support the licensing and deployment of novel nuclear technologies.
Prior to starting graduate school at MIT, Patrick worked for MPR Associates in Alexandria, VA solving engineering problems at commercial nuclear power plants and co-authored an ERPI report on transitioning existing baseload nuclear power plants to flexible power (load following) operations. Patrick received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2012 and has previously interned with the Westinghouse Electric Company and the Defense Nuclear Faciliites Safety Board.
Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation 