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.  

 

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Ph.D. Students 

Allison Probert

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

Allison is a first 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 

 

Joel Latimer

Research Interests: Modeling and Simulation, Nuclear Fuel and Material Performance, Reactor Physics

Joel is a first year PhD student in the Nuclear Engineering Program. He graduated from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, TX with a B.S. in Business Administration, National University in La Jolla, CA with an M.S. in Engineering Management, specialization in Systems Engineering and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He spent 5 years in the United States Marine Corps as an officer. He is an avid football fan and bible reader.

Projects : Convolutional Neural Networks for Reactor Physics Parameter Prediction

 

 

Jeremy Smith

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

Jeremy is a second 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.

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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.

 

 

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 : Gas Core Reactor Design and Analysis 

 

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Undergraduate & Honors Students

M.S. Students

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

Thomas Honeywill

Research Interests: Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Design, Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture, FPGA, GPU, ASIC Design 

Thomas graduated Cum Laude from Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.  Thomas then went on to industry to work for General Motors as a software developer where he developed database solutions for GM’s European Division.  During this, he also went on to bolster his computing background by achieving a certificate in Full Stack Software Development from the University of Texas at Austin.  After being in industry, Thomas then went on to pursue his interest in the military by attending Officer Training School at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery AL, where he commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.  His first assignment sent him to Cape Canaveral AFS, FL where he performed mission assurance for Atlas/Delta launch vehicles and associated payloads as a Developmental Electrical Engineer.  While at Cape Canaveral, Thomas worked a total of ten missions, which consisted of seven national security missions and three commercial missions.  After this, Thomas ultimately decided to advance his education by pursuing a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida.  While attending the University of Florida, Thomas sought to broaden his engineering experience by becoming a research assistant under the direction of Dr. Watson.  Thomas joined a project to develop software solutions to perform uncertainty quantification of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission codes TRACE and FAST. 

Personal interests: Swimming, Reading, Music, Video Games 

Projects : Uncertainty quantification of TRACE-FAST using RAVEN 

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.