It is pretty cool.
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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That's such a wicked picture. So scifi
Glad we have another nuclear enthusiast here! Funnily enough, even though I work in nuclear energy research and have seen several running reactors (Yay TRIGAs), I have never seen a startup. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!
Of course!
I'd love to hear about your research if you're willing to share with us. Nuclear energy has always been an interest of mine, but unfortunately I've not had the opportunity to study in the field as the bulk of my education has taken place at a pretty small university with a limited physics program. I don't know if it would be interesting for you, but perhaps you might consider doing a bit of a write up on what it is that you work on? Maybe even a bit of an AMA type thing could be fun if you're into that.
Oh, that would be fun. I would have to be careful to maintain my anonymity or do it under an alt account though, since the field is fairly small.
Specifically I work in nuclear reactor materials R&D. I have worked on fuel, cladding, and structural materials for a variety of reactor concepts (existing LWR fleet and advanced reactors). I go from basic science on irradiation damage up to manufacturing processes and next-gen material development and deployment.
Sound interesting?
That sounds phenomenally interesting. In fact, it sounds a lot like what I had imagined myself doing with my education when I started my bachelor's. So at least for me and my interests, I'd love to know more about what you do, as well as to hear about what your background is and how you found yourself where you are.
Of course it's totally up to you whether or not you share, and if you do, to what extent. So don't feel obligated to or anything. Also, I just created this community this morning and we have like, 10 subscribers at the moment, so I don't know how interesting or rewarding it will be for you. Just know there's at least one person here who wants to know more!
Well, fire away here at least, I don't necessarily want to make a post about it but happy to chat!
I got my B.S. from a state engineering school in the USA and then went to a "Public Ivy" for my PhD. I started in materials after I realized it was actually a discipline. While in undergrad I worked in a metallurgy lab and had the great chance to do several internships at national labs, still working on metals. In grad school, I started in experimental work on semiconductors but switched to modeling and simulation of nuclear fuel cladding degradation, again, after I realized it was a disciple. I had a summer internship at another national lab during grad school and I became the first PhD in my family. I did two years of postdoc on novel superalloys that was joint lab/university. I then took a position at national lab #4, where I remain today. I have worked there for over five years. In that time I worked on modeling multiple fuel systems and helped stand up an initiative for nuclear materials, which was successfully combined with other small programs into a new national program, of which I am a senior leadership member. In that role I set technical directions for my area and support the entire program direction, lead technical work and supervise staff and postdocs, and serve as the materials contact at my lab for other programs and high-level visitors (developing collaborations with industry, governments, etc).
You have a pretty badass academic and professional history! I'm very intrigued.
I have a few questions for you:
- What was the subject of your PhD?
- When you say "modelling and simulation", what are you referring to? what techniques are you applying? I ask because I am a chemical physicist at a small university with a very niche physics program, so my exposure to "modelling and simulation" is limited to molecular dynamics and some other techniques like DFT. I'd love to learn more about what other types of modelling techniques there are out there so I can gauge how well I might be able to pivot into another field with the knowledge that I have gained.
Your career path is basically what I've had in mind since I finished by bachelor's. The idea has been to move into R&D or similar outside of academia, preferably in a leadership or management type role. I have a family member who was recently telling me about opportunities at national labs in the US, and it piqued my interest. I myself expatriated when I was young, but I might find myself back in the states sometime in the future. So being able to talk to you, now, is particularly relevant for me haha. Anyway, what has your experience been like in working for a national lab? I know that's a broad question, but I have precisely zero background on what to expect should I pursue a similar path.
Thank you so much for taking the time to engage with us [read: me]. I do really appreciate it. And sorry for the wall of text!
My PhD was quite niche, so I am reluctant to be too specific about it in a public forum, however, I used phase field modelling to study second phase precipitation and growth in metals. Things like the effect of stress on chemical potential and thus growth of particles, nucleation, etc. Phase field is a mesoscale technique that you likely aren't familiar with if you work in the chemistry arena, but it is cool! Other areas of modeling that my group works with includes DFT, MDC, KMC flavors, cluster dynamics, phase field fracture, machine learning and engineering scale finite element modeling.
Working in academia, national labs and industry all have their own sets of pros and cons. You have to pick the set that personally works best for you (best pros and most manageable cons). I will say at a national lab, if you want a leadership or management role in R&D, you will need a PhD, and at absolutely bare minimum a master's to get your foot in the door. Plenty of bachelors and masters work to do as well but much less likely to have an R&D lead role. Citizenship is also a question. If you are American interested in a US national lab, great! If you are actually not a citizen any more that is more challenging, and depending on the country of citizenship, possibly impossible.
I enjoy working at the labs. There are a ton of brilliant people and the labs are an intersection of many slices including academia and industry. I enjoy that nexus environment. Others do not and prefer to be in a pure research space. Some labs are more applied and some are more basic science, so there is variety. Of course I have to deal with changing political winds affecting our work path sometimes, and reporting such that Congress won't get a bee in their bonnet. But I don't have to write endless proposals and I don't have to rush teaching. I have plenty of mentoring opportunities available if I so desire. I get a ton of opportunities and also a lot of risk, but as I said, I have great people around me who support me in my work. I fit in to our lab mission and I find great satisfaction in that.
I wrote out a long reply but it got deleted :( The gist of it was that I think your work is very fascinating, and I want to thank you for sharing your experience with me. I have one last question for you before I leave you alone: How important would you say the topic of your PhD is in getting into the positions that you've held? I have the opportunity to work on some very interesting projects that aren't necessarily related to my career interests, and I soon have to make a decision.
Thank you again for taking the time to filed my questions!
Oh bummer :(
Well, don't take my advice as gospel truth. But in my experience when we are hiring post-docs (and doing my own post doc), we are looking for people who can execute a technical project quickly. So they have to have the technical skills to do something but don't have to have the knowledge of the particular material system, which can be filled in with lit research and working with an advisor/supervisor. In my group, I would take a person who knows MD and not radiation damage physics versus someone who does know radiation damage physics but works in experimental characterization, for example. I'm not sure how that translates for chemistry - you may want to ask a few people for the specifics in the field.