In order to meet the needs of an undergraduate student population that is growing exponentially, the Department of Nuclear Engineering hired two instructional faculty members for the first time.
Daniel Suarez and Mackenzie Warwick joined the department in January as full-time teaching professors. They are each teaching three-to-four classes per semester, providing continuity of instruction for students and streamlining faculty responsibilities.
“There’s a consistency in who teaches what, so students are getting the same quality of education across the board in our intro classes,” Warwick said. “But it also helps take the load off some faculty who have research and teaching commitments. My responsibility is just teaching and getting students educated to go out into the real world as nuclear engineers.”
The NE department’s freshman class has quadrupled in size over the last few years, growing from 30 to more than 120 as students seek out a high-level educational experience from a department ranked No. 3 overall in the US News & World Report Rankings.
“Hiring Daniel and Mackenzie allows our students to have more curriculum flexibility and gives us more personnel to teach core classes,” said TVA Nuclear Department Chair Brian Wirth. “Daniel and Mackenzie will be able to help us provide the best possible education and learning environment and outcomes for our students as we train them to be engineers.”
Passion for Teaching
Warwick, 27, received her bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan, where she taught nuclear classes for nearly three years and oversaw the university’s nuclear K-12 outreach programs.
“I see a lot of myself in a good chunk of my students. I remember being in their shoes, and I remember that feeling and knowing how much better I was on the other side of it,” Warwick said. “I had to teach myself a lot going through Michigan. It was very difficult, and it was very high level, and it was very involved. But I’m a big proponent of failure because that is how you learn. I don’t want my students afraid of that. That is a part of engineering and a part of life. It’s not a weakness to ask for help.”
Suarez graduated from Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and nuclear engineering, respectively. His first job was in the nuclear industry and included teaching control room operators for nuclear power plants for more than 12 years. In 2016, Suarez joined the UPC faculty at as an associate professor before he was recruited to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2023 for his PhD work on fusion.
“Teaching is very natural for me. It’s something that I am comfortable doing and really love, because I can see people learning and I enjoy learning myself,” Suarez said. “There is a famous quote by Richard Feynman that says, ‘If you want to learn something, teach it,’ because it forces you to take a step-by-step process of thinking that will lead you to learn.”
Growth and Connection
Warwick’s passion for teaching nuclear engineering stemmed from her own experience in college.
“I was very high achieving in high school, and then I get to Michigan, and I got knocked down probably about 10 rungs in terms of the caliber, the time management, and just figuring out new ways to learn,” she said. “So, I really like when the light bulb clicks for a student, and I like being able to distill a really difficult topic into something that people can understand. This is my dream job.”
Warwick and Suarez have already made strong connections with their students and have been impressed by the aptitude and curiosity of their classes. Coming to UT as instructors has required them to expand their own skillsets.
“I think it’s a great way to foster continuous improvement of myself,” Warwick said. “Students will have a different question each year, or I’ll teach it a different way. If some students don’t get it, how do I pivot? I want to be able to instruct in a way that is accessible for multiple different types of learning styles.”
As they get more recognizable around campus, Suarez and Warwick hope students get more comfortable engaging with them even beyond the classroom.
“My door is always open for students to come and chat about whatever they’re interested in or whatever questions they may have,” Suarez said. “I enjoy having conversations about their interests and their goals. They are welcome to visit me any time to discuss any topic.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (rpotkey@utk.edu)