Brian Wirth
The Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE) research expenditures continued an upward trend for fiscal year 2024, increasing for the third straight year to nearly $17.8 million. The growth was highlighted by three faculty members topping the charts among all professors in the Tickle College of Engineering (TCE).
Department Head Brian Wirth led TCE in expenditures over all levels, Professor and Pietro F. Pasqua Fellow Nicholas Brown had the top expenditures at the associate professor level, and Assistant Professor and Charles P. Postelle Professor Vladimir Sobes had the top expenditures at the assistant professor level.
Wirth’s TCE-leading expenditures total is $3,072,373, per American Society of Engineering Education/US News & World Report figures. Brown’s expenditures total is $1,505,118, and Sobes’ expenditures total is $813, 301.
Nicholas Brown
In addition, the University of Tennessee was recently named the lead institution for a $25 million cooperative agreement awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Security Administration Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation. Professor and UCOR Fellow Jason Hayward is the director of the consortium’s executive team.
The research funds help support 120 graduate research appointment positions in the department.
“The research expenditures are a direct indication of the quality of our faculty, their ability to define and develop research proposals that address important topics in nuclear engineering, and the respect that they have earned from their peers who are reviewing proposals,” Wirth said. “Further, the level of research expenditures indicates the ability to develop a diverse and sustainable funding portfolio, which often involve multiple collaborating institutions and interdisciplinary research approaches.”
Nuclear Research Projects
Wirth and Brown are part of a team this year that received a $1.25 Phase II continuation award from the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program. The focus of the project is to develop and validate coupled multi-physics tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel performance models for high temperature gas cool reactors, including both pebble bed modular high temperature gas cool reactors (mHTGRs), microreactors, and prismatic microreactors.
Brown is also part of a team that recently secured a $1.25 million grant from the DOE’s Office of Science that will allow the team to validate past simulations NE faculty have performed with real fusion experimental data for the first time.
Vladimir Sobes
Sobes’ most recent award was $250,000 from the Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and UT-Battelle to develop detailed proof-of-concept results to demonstrate the national scientific impact of the flexible neutron source at UT.
Not only does the research money showcase the faculty’s expertise, but it also gives students a chance to gain experience through their participation in research groups and project meetings.
“This provides opportunities to engage with collaborating institutions and presents opportunities to build an extensive network of peers that will increase options for their post-graduate careers,” Wirth said. “I recall from my own days as a graduate student that I benefited tremendously from learning about the research of our group members activities, as well as seeing firsthand how they approached their research.”
Wirth is proud of everything the NE faculty has accomplished and how much their research has enhanced UT’s reputation in the industry. He hopes their work will inspire the next generation of engineers and allow UT to remain at the forefront of nuclear discovery.
“A great thing about science and engineering is that you never know when that serendipitous moment of discovery will happen,” Wirth said. “But I strongly believe that the likelihood for it to happen increases with the frequency of interaction and discussion about research, especially when the topic may not seem exactly overlapped with your own.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (865-974-0683, rpotkey@utk.edu)