Associate Professor, and Assistant Head and Director of Graduate Studies
Biography
- Expert in nuclear fuel safety, thermal fluid sciences, and advanced nuclear reactor design with a track record of highly effective collaboration with colleagues from diverse backgrounds
- Experienced technical leader with excellent project and people management skills
- Author or co-author of more than 200 refereed publications (100+ peer reviewed journal and 100+ peer reviewed conference papers) and 2 book chapters
- More than 25 awards as a Principal or Co-Principal Investigator, in addition to past technical leadership on several national laboratory projects (funded grants and contracts as PI or Co-PI with a total value of more than $18,000,000)
- Interviewed as a subject matter expert in WIRED magazine, MIT News, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and other popular media
- On the Stanford University list of top 2% most cited researchers for 2022 and 2021
- Two major national awards from ANS (Okrent in 2023 and Landis in 2021) and two best paper awards in 2022 (Journal of Nuclear Materials and Journal of Asian Ceramic Societies)
- Founding faculty advisor for the Nuclear Engineering Graduate Student Assembly at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an organization dedicated to building community for graduate students, providing lines of communication for graduate students to university leadership, and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Technical Program Chair of 2023 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Annual Meeting, Technical Program Chair of 2021 ANS Annual Meeting, Assistant Technical Program Chair of 2020 ANS Annual Meeting, Assistant Technical Program Chair of 2018 ANS Annual Meetings, 2021-2022 Chair of the Nuclear Installations Safety Division of ANS.
Research
- Nuclear reactor safety and simulation of reactor and system transients
- Advanced nuclear fuel and cladding materials, including nuclear fuel safety
- Assessment and simulation of sustainable nuclear fuel cycles
Education
2011 Doctor of Philosophy. Concentration: Thermal Hydraulics
School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, Issued: May 7, 2011
2007 Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering.
School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, Issued: Dec. 15, 2007
2005 Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering.
Summa Cum Laude. Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA, Issued: May 14, 2005
Professional Service
- Co-Technical Program Chair, 2023 ANS Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Chair, 2021-2022 Nuclear Installations Safety Division, American Nuclear Society
- Technical Program Chair, 2021 ANS Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, USA (2021 Virtual Annual Meeting due to COVID-19)
- Vice Chair and Chair Elect: 2020 Nuclear Installations Safety Division, American Nuclear Society
- Assistant Technical Program Chair: 2020 ANS Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, USA (2020 Virtual Annual Meeting due to COVID-19)
- Editorial Board, Journal of Nuclear Engineering, 2020-present
- Session Organizer and Chair: Safety Aspects of Accident-Tolerant Fuel Critical Heat Flux–Panel at 2019 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting; Jun. 9-13; Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Session Co-Chair: Molten-Salt Reactor Thermal Hydraulics at Advances in Thermal Hydraulics (ATH 2018); Nov. 11-15; Orlando, Florida, USA
- Session Chair: Current Topics in Probabilistic Risk Analysis at 2018 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting; Nov. 11-15; Orlando, Florida, USA
- Reactor Physics Division Executive Committee (American Nuclear Society), 2018-2021
- Assistant Technical Program Chair, 2018 ANS Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Session Chair: Used Fuel and Life Management for LWRs at 2018 Nuclear Fuels and Structural Materials Embedded Topical; Jun. 17-21; American Nuclear Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Session Organizer and Chair: Nuclear Installations Safety: General - I at 2018 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting; Jun. 17-21; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Session Organizer: Current Topics in Probabilistic Risk Analysis at 2018 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting; Jun. 17-21; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Symposium Co-Organizer, Advanced ceramics and composites for nuclear fission and fusion energy, 42nd International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, 2018, Daytona, FL, USA
- Session Organizer and Chair: Nuclear Installations Safety: General - I and II at 2017 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting; Oct. 29 – Nov. 2; Washington D.C., USA
- Session Organizer: Current Topics in Probabilistic Risk Analysis at 2017 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting; Oct. 29 – Nov. 2; Washington D.C., USA
- Nuclear Installations Safety Division Executive Committee (American Nuclear Society), 2017-2020
- Chair, Nuclear Installations Safety Division Program Committee (American Nuclear Society), 2017-2018
- Reactor Physics Division Program Committee (American Nuclear Society), 2015-2018
- Session Organizer: Nuclear Installations Safety: General and Current Topics in Probabilistic Risk Analysis at 2017 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting; Jun. 11-15; San Francisco, CA, USA
- Session Chair of Current Topics in Probabilistic Risk Analysis at 2017 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting; Jun. 11-15; San Francisco, CA, USA
- Vice Chair, Nuclear Installations Safety Division Program Committee (American Nuclear Society), 2016-2017
- Session Chair of Nuclear Installations Safety: General—I and Nuclear Installations Safety: General—III at American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting 2016, Nov. 6-10; Las Vegas, NV, USA
- Session Chair of Molten Salt Reactor Technology and Used Fuel Separation Technology at ICAPP 2016: Nuclear Innovation: Inventing the Future of Existing and New Nuclear Power; April 17-20; San Francisco, CA, USA
- Session Chair of Fuel Cycle and Actinide Management and Reactor Physics Experiments at PHYSOR2014: Role of Reactor Physics towards a Sustainable Future in Kyoto, Japan
- Session Chair at FFAG'14 2014 International Workshop on FFAG Accelerators, Upton, NY, USA
- Session Chair of Integral and Separate Thermal Hydraulics Testing and Analysis I & II at International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants 2010 in San Diego, CA, USA for Annals of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Engineering and Design, Nuclear Technology, etc.
Awards and Recognitions
- Recognized as a BNL Distinguished Performer in FY2013 and FY2014
- Purdue University Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship, 2010–2011
- S. Department of Homeland Security Graduate Fellowship, 2006–2009
- Institute of Nuclear Power Operators (INPO) Fellowship, 2005–2006
- Proposed, designed, and flew an experiment on the Vomit Comet, NASA Microgravity University Program, 2004
- Alpha Nu Sigma and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Societies
- Accomplished actor in Albuquerque, New Mexico, community-theater, including several leading roles and numerous performances in the Albuquerque Little Theater
Publications
Select list of publications. For the full list, view his Google Scholar page.
Ghezzi, C. G., Kile, R. F., Brown, N. R.*, 2022. “TRISO SiC Failure Probability for Reactivity Initiated Accidents in High-Temperature Gas- Cooled Reactors.” Nuclear Science and Engineering, DOI: 10.1080/00295639.2022.2097466. (* Senior and corresponding author)
Seo, S. B., Duchnowski, E. M., Motta, A. T., Kammenzind, B. F., Brown, N. R.*, 2022. “Sensitivity analysis for characterizing the impact of HNGD model on the prediction of hydrogen redistribution in Zircaloy cladding using BISON code.” Nuclear Engineering and Design, 393, p. 111813. (* Senior and corresponding author)
Kile, R.F., Bostelmann, F., Skutnik, S.E., Wieselquist, W.A., Brown, N.R.*, 2022. “Assessment of SCALE and MELCOR for a generic pebble bed fluoride high-temperature reactor.” Annals of Nuclear Energy, 173, p.109107. (* Senior and corresponding author)
Brown, N.R., 2021. “Engineering Demonstration Reactors: A Stepping Stone on the Path to Deployment of Advanced Nuclear Energy in the United States.” Energy, p.121750.
Lee, S.K., Brown, N.R.*, 2021. “Flow boiling transient critical heat flux tests with stainless steel and FeCrAl: Transient correlation implementation, model calibration, and sensitivity analysis.” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 179, p.121730. (* Senior and corresponding author)
Gorton, J.P., Schappel, D., Nelson, A.T., Brown, N.R.*, 2020. “Impact of uranium oxide (UO2) fuel with molybdenum (Mo) inserts on pressurized water reactor performance and safety.” Journal of Nuclear Materials, p.152492. (* Senior and corresponding author)
Brown, N.R.*, Garrison, B.E., Lowden, R.R., Cinbiz, M.N., Linton, K.D., 2020. “Mechanical failure of fresh nuclear grade iron–chromium–aluminum (FeCrAl) cladding under simulated hot zero power reactivity initiated accident conditions.” Journal of Nuclear Materials, p.152352. (* Co-first and corresponding author)
Brown, N.R., 2020. “A review of in-pile fuel safety tests of TRISO fuel forms and future testing opportunities in non-HTGR applications.” Journal of Nuclear Materials, p.152139.
Hernandez, R., Folsom, C. P., Woolstenhulme, N. E., Jensen, C. B., Bess, J. D., Gorton, J. P., Brown, N.R.*, 2020. “Review of pool boiling critical heat flux (CHF) and heater rod design for CHF experiments in TREAT.” Progress in Nuclear Energy, 123, p. 103303. (* Senior and corresponding author)
Brown, N.R., Diamond, D. J., Bajorek, S., Denning, R., 2020. “Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronic Phenomena Important in Modeling and Simulation of Liquid-Fuel Molten Salt Reactors.” Nuclear Technology, 206(2), pp.322-338.