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The University of Tennessee

Nuclear Engineering Department

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Faculty and Research

The Nuclear Engineering Department faculty consists of thirteen tenured (or tenure track) faculty members, seventeen research faculty members, six joint faculty, thirty-five adjunct faculty members and six emeritus members. They are listed below along with their research interests. Titles of recent research publications and selected abstracts are presented in the Department's Annual Report. To provide a structure through which it may effectively discharge its responsibilities in the development and conduct of the Department’s programs of instruction, research, and service, the Faculty of the Nuclear Engineering Department of the University of Tennessee agrees to govern itself according to Bylaws.

Tenured (or tenure-track) Faculty

Dr. Howard L. Hall Howard L. Hall, Governor's Chair Professor, Ph.D. U. of Calif.-Berkeley
Research Interests: Nuclear security applications, including proliferation detection, counterproliferation, detection of and response to radiological/nuclear threats, nuclear forensics, radiochemistry, and applications of nuclear-based methods to other security needs (such as explosives detection).
Dr. Jason P. Hayward Jason P. Hayward, UCOR Fellow, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Michigan
Research interests: Radiation instrumentation, especially for nonproliferation technologies and imaging.
Dr. Lawrence Heilbronn Lawrence H. Heilbronn, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Michigan State
Research interests: high-energy neutron production from heavy-ion interactions.
Dr. J. Wesley Hines J. Wesley Hines, Postelle Professor and Head, Ph.D. Ohio State; MBA Ohio State
Research interests: diagnostics and surveillance, artificial intelligence methods, expert systems and neural networks
Dr. Eric Lukosi Eric D. Lukosi, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Missouri
Research interests: Neutron detection and spectrometry, dosimetry, nuclear batteries, applied plasma physics, nuclear physics and cross section evaluations
Dr. G. Ivan Maldonado G. Ivan Maldonado, Associate Professor, Ph.D. North Carolina State
Research interests: incore fuel management, fuel cycle analysis, advanced reactors
Dr. Laurence F. Miller Laurence F. Miller, Professor, Ph.D. Texas A&M;, P.E.
Research interests: particle and radiation transport, diagnostics and surveillance, waste management, health physics, modeling and simulation, instrumentation and control
Dr. Ronald E. Pevey Ronald E. Pevey, Associate Professor, Ph.D. Tennessee, P.E.; MBA Emory
Research interests: reactor physics, thermal hydraulics, computer methods development, shielding, nuclear criticality safety
Dr. Arthur E. Ruggles Arthur E. Ruggles, Professor, Ph.D. RPI
Research interests: Reactor thermalhydraulics, liquid metal flow and heat transfer, cavitation and fluid transients, accelerator target design and microchannel flow
Dr. Steven Skutnik Steven E. Skutnik, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. North Carolina State
Research interests: Nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards, nuclear fuel cycle modeling, nuclear waste management, and policy issues pertaining to the nuclear fuel cycle.
Dr. Lawrence W. Townsend Lawrence W. Townsend, Chancellor's Professor; Robert M. Condra Professor, Ph.D. Idaho
Research interests: Radiation physics, transport, shielding and risk assessment; Nuclear and Radiological engineering; Theoretical nuclear physics
Dr. Belle R. Upadhyaya Belle R. Upadhyaya, Professor, Ph.D. U. of Calif.-San Diego, P.E.
Research interests: Dynamics, instrumentation and control, monitoring and diagnostics, advanced signal processing, next generation reactors, autonomous control of space reactors, nondestructive examination, reliability and maintainability engineering.
Dr. Brian D. Wirth Brian D. Wirth, Governor's Chair Professor, Ph.D. U. of Calif.-Santa Barbara
Research Interests: Computational modeling and measurements of radiation effects in materials, molecular dynamics simulation, nano-materials.

Research Faculty

Ray S. Booth, Research Professor, Ph.D., Florida
Research interests: liquid metal reactors, research reactors, environmental impacts, neutron wave probagation.

Ondrej Chvala, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D.,Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Research interests: High performance computing applications to nuclear engineering, reactor core physics, molten salt based nuclear systems.

Mario Fontana, Research Professor, Ph.D., Purdue, P.E.
Research interests: Power reactor safety (including response to potential terrorist attack, and advanced reactor systems.

Barry D. Ganapol, Research Professor, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Research interests: Deterministic and analytical transport theory.

Bethany Goldblum, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D. U. of Calif.-Berkeley
Research Interests: cross section measurements, nuclear forensics, homeland security

Andrei Gribok, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Moscow Institute of Biological Physics
Research interests: artificial intelligence techniques, surveillance and diagnosis, Inverse and ill-posed problems, Regularization theory.

Martin L. Grossbeck, Research Professor, Ph.D., Illinois
Research interests: radiation effects in materials, burnable absorbers, research reactors, and ultra-high vacuum technology.

Richard A. Lillie, Research Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research interests: radiation transport methods development and nuclear system shielding

John T. Mihalczo, Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research interests: radiation measurements for nuclear safeguards and nuclear criticality safety, reactor physics

Jack Miller, Research Professor, Ph.D., University of California
Research interests: space radiation protection and radiological engineering

Hanna Moussa, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research Interests: radiation safety, Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport.

F.R. Mynatt, Research Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research interests: radiation transport, isotope production and nuclear regulations

Joseph R. Stainback, IV, Research Associate Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research interests: Performing research for the University of Tennessee's Institute for Nuclear Security focusing efforts on five principal thematic areas within the Nuclear Industry namely Policy, Law, and Diplomacy, Education and Training, Science and Technology, Operational and Intelligence Capabilities, and Real World Missions while taking a systems engineering approach to these matters. Joe has also a Joint Appointment with the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Andrew Stephan, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research interests: radiation detection and homeland security

Timothy Valentine, Research Associate Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research interests: nuclear system safety and energy policy

Graham V. Walford, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of Surrey, UK
Research interests: Non-Destructive assay, remote nuclear and hyperspectral sensing, optical analysis, and multi-sensor systems.

Donghua Xu, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research interests: Nuclear structural materials; radiation damage in materials; amorphous and nano-crystalline metals/alloys; rate theory based cluster dynamics modeling; kinetic Monte Carlo modeling; positron annihilation spectroscopy experiments

Joint Faculty (with ORNL)

Theodore M. Besmann, Professor, Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University
Research Interests: Nuclear fuel behavior, chemical thermodynamics, thermochemical modeling, energy policy

David H. Cook, Associate Professor, Ph.D. Tennessee
Research interests: reactor safety analysis, thermalhydraulic analysis, research reactor development, advanced reactors, engineering education

Jess C. Gehin, Associate Professor, Ph.D. MIT
Research interests: reactor physics and analysis, advanced reactors, nuclear fuel cycle, modeling and simulation

Robert E. Grove, Associate Professor, Ph.D. Michigan
Research interests: radiation transport modeling and simulation, computational methods development and applications, high performance computing, shielding, reactor physics, nuclear security

Vincent J. Jodoin, Associate Professor, Ph.D. Air Force Institute of Technology, P.E.
Research interests: nuclear security including the effects of nuclear weapons, nuclear fallout, nuclear forensics, modeling and simulation

Rajesh Maingi, Professor, Ph.D. North Carolina State University
Research interests: plasma physics and controlled fusion, plasma wall interactions, plasma diagnostics

Adjunct Faculty

Dr. Brian Anderson, Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Andrei I. Apostoaei, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Joseph Bowling, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Kevin T. Clarno, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. David H. Cook, Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Keith Eckerman, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Paul A. Hausladen, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Mr. Christopher Haught, Lecturer
Dr. F. Owen Hoffman, Adjunct Professor
Dr. David E. Holcomb, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Mr. Calvin Hopper, Lecturer
Dr. Alan Icenhour, Adjunct Professor
Dr. Erik B. Iverson, Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Jose March-Leuba, Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Gloria Mei, Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Chet Ramsey, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Brandon P. Rasmussen, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Mr. Christopher Robinson, Lecturer
Mr. Richard G. Taylor, Lecturer
Dr. Joseph Thie, Adjunct Professor
Dr. Aleksay H. Urmanov, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Colin West, Adjunct Professor
Dr. Robert M. Westfall, Teaching Associate
Dr. Mark Williams, Adjunct Professor
Dr. Richard T. Wood, Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Graydon L. Yoder, Jr., Adjunct Professor

Emeritus Faculty

H.L. Dodds, IBM Professor, Ph.D. Tennessee, P.E.
Research interests: reactor core analysis, transient modeling and simulation, reactor safety analysis, advanced reactors, nuclear criticality safety, energy policy

Peter G. Groer, Professor, Ph.D. Vienna
Research interests: radiation risk assessment, competing risk theory, health physics, reliability analysis

Thomas W. Kerlin, Professor, Ph.D., Tennessee
Research interests: diagnostics and surveillance, modeling and simulation, instrumentation and control

Robert E. Uhrig, Distinguished Professor, Ph.D. Iowa State, PE
Research interests: diagnostics and surveillance, artificial intelligence methods, expert systems and neural networks