Faculty

Dr. Justin Watson

Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering

Nuclear Engineering Graduate Coordinator

Dr. Justin Watson joined the Nuclear Engineering Program at UF in September of 2018.  Prior to joining UF, he was Head of the Computational Methods Development Department at the Applied Research Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University.  During his time at ARL, he oversaw a group of engineers that developed state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics codes and models to solve some of the Navy’s most challenging problems.  His research at ARL involved developing new numerical methods for solving space and time dependent coupled reactor physics/thermal hydraulic problems for nuclear reactor safety analysis. Currently his research  focuses is on continuing to develop state-of-the-art analysis software and methods.  

 

---

Ph.D. Students 

Allison Probert

Research Interests: Modeling and Simulation, High-Performance Computing, Materials Characterization

Allison is a third year PhD student in the Nuclear Engineering Program. She graduated cum laude from Davidson College with a B.S in Physics. During her time as an undergraduate, she researched the development and characterization of radioisotope doped nanoparticles. During her graduate education she is interested in examining nuclear fuel and material performance computationally and experimentally through Multiphysics simulation and modeling as well as characterization and property evaluation.

Projects : High-fidelity modeling of fuel-to-coolant thermomechanical transport behaviors under transient conditions 

 

Jeremy Smith

Research Interests: Nuclear Fuel Performance Modeling and Simulation, Nuclear Materials Modeling, Multiphysics Coupling

Jeremy is a third year PhD student in the Nuclear Engineering Program. He is a former licensed reactor operator at the Washington State University TRIGA where he participated in the HEU to LEU conversion and first spent fuel shipment from the facility. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University. He is the recipient of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fellowship at the University of Florida since August of 2022.

Projects : High temperature materials modeling of uranium bicarbide and tricarbide fuels for nuclear thermal propulsion rockets, high burnup fuel material and multiphysics modeling in accident conditions.

 

Dylan Jurski

Research Interests: Modeling and Simulation, Reactor Physics, Thermal Hydraulics Modeling, Advanced Reactor Design, and Reactor Operations

Dylan is a first year PhD student in the Nuclear Engineering Program. He is a former Naval Submarine Officer aboard the USS MONTANA (SSN 794) where he served as part of the initial criticality, power range steam testing, and commissioning crew. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Florida.

Projects : Thermal Power Dispatch Concept of Operations Development and Experiment Support

 

 

 

Su Biswas

Research Interests: Research Interests: Modeling and Simulation, Reactor Physics & Thermal Hydraulics, Gas Core Reactors, Nuclear Space Propulsion.

Su is a first year PhD student in the Nuclear Engineering Program. She graduated from Idaho State University (ISU) with an M.S in Nuclear Engineering. During her time as a graduate student at ISU, she worked on numerical evaluation of the MARVEL reactor’s secondary unit heat exchanger performance with Sterling Engine. During her time at University of Florida, she is working on investigating the stability of a fissioning plasma in gas core reactors, explore materials that limit plasma erosion, and determine the heat transfer characteristics for the Gas Core Reactor (GCR).

Projects : High Temperature Gas Core Reactor Fission Plasma Stability 

---

M.S. Students 

Kaela Kieler

Research Interests: Modeling and simulation, Plasma and Fusion energy, Reactor physics

Kaela is a first year M.S. student in the Nuclear Engineering Program. She spent 6 years in the United States Navy operating and maintaining the nuclear reactor aboard the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. Her interests lie in assisting with furthering the development of fusion energy technologies using multiphysics modeling and simulation techniques.

Projects : High Temperature Gas Core Reactor Fission Plasma Stability 

 

---

Undergraduate & Honors Students

M.S. Students

Curtis Lurvey

Research Interests: Finite Element and Multiphysics Modeling and Simulation, Multiphysics Coupling

Curtis graduated cum laude from the University of Florida in 2023 with a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering. He has interests in finite element and multiphysics modeling of novel fuel rod designs to improve the economics of new and existing reactors. He has accepted a position at Framatome upon the completion of his master’s degree.

Projects : Non-Traditional Helical 4 and 3 Lobe Fuel for Pressurized Water Reactor Safety Analysis.

 

 

Thomas Smola

Research Interests: Thermal Hydraulics Modeling, Neutronics Modeling, Molten Salt Reactor Chemistry and Design, Separate Effects Testing, Advanced Reactor Design and Modeling

Tommy Smola graduated Magma Cum Laude from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in nuclear engineering. Tommy pursued his calling of studying the intricacies of nuclear engineering while expanding his horizons through working at the University of Florida Training Reactor for several years, interning at Southern Company as a research and development intern, and participating in undergraduate studies as a radiochemist. After graduating with his B.S., Tommy sought to cap off his traditional education with a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Florida. Tommy’s penultimate goal is to advance the suite of nuclear technologies that will allow nuclear power production to become more robust, versatile, and ubiquitous. Seeing an opportunity to do just that under the direction of Dr. Watson, Tommy joined a project to diversify the capabilities of boiling water reactors by testing the coupling of the reactor type with industrial hydrogen production.

Personal interests: Human Performance and Exercise, Reading, Hiking, Space Flight, Video Games

Projects : BWR Thermal Dispatch for Industrial Applications

 

 

ThienAn Nguyen

Research Interests: Multiphysics Modeling and Simulation, Risk Analysis, Nonproliferation

ThienAn completed his undergraduate work at the University of Dallas (UD) and received a Bachelors of Science in Physics with a minor in Music.  While at UD, he completed a thesis on MCNP calculations of neutron shielding within the University of Kentucky Accelerator Laboratory (UKAL), MCNP calculations of neutron scattering off of shielding into the forward and long counters at UKAL, as well as inelastic neutron scattering cross sections of 56Fe.  At UF, he has worked with national lab codes such as TRex/SCALE and PROTEUS to verify transient results against known benchmark problems such as C5G7. During the summer of 2019, he worked at Los Alamos National Lab on a project to model a closed-loop lead test cartridge for the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) using the NRC thermo-hydraulics code TRACE.  

Projects: Implicit Modeling of the Themo-Mechanical Behavior in a Sodium Cooled Nuclear Reactor ; TRACE Modeling of Closed-Loop, Lead-Cooled Cartridges for Use in the Versatile Test Reactor

Undergraduate Students

Melany Perez-Matias

Research Interests: Thermodynamics and Energy Systems, Design and Manufacturing, Fluid-Structure Interaction, Modeling and Simulation, Data Science and Machine Learning, Fluids, Nuclear Instrumentation and Control

Melany is a senior at the University of Puerto Rico- Mayaguez Campus pursuing a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.  During her time as an undergraduate, she was part of the RockSat-X and RockSat-C research team working on sounding rocket payload development focused on micrometeoroid and interplanetary dust particle collection for meteoritics and astrobiology research to characterize the extent of Earth’s biosphere.  She also was an intern for the Office of Knowledge and Quality Management preparing a new lessons learned database.  She is spending her last summer as undergrad performing research at UF in the FAMMos research group.  She will be working on developing Nodal Expansion Methos (NEM) models for use with LatticeNet.

Projects : Convolutional Neural Networks for Reactor Physics Parameter Prediction

Aidan Furlong

Research Interests:

Aidan Furlong is a Junior at the University of Florida pursuing a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering.  He is motivated to further develop his programming skills and to work with neural network applications in the nuclear field.  

Projects: Application of LatticeNet Deep Learning Architecture on Neutronics Predictions Using OpenMC, Prediction of High-Fidelity Neutronics Parameters in PWRs Using Artificial Neural Networks

 

 

 

Hannah Patz

Research Interests:

Hannah Patz graduated in May of 2023 from the Nuclear Engineering Program at the University of Florida.  She is pursuing a PhD in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Florida.