Woon-hong Yeo
Pettit 204
404.385.5710
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Yeo
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Sawicki
Gregory Sawicki
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Yeo
W. Hong Yeo
Pettit 204
404.385.5710
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ME Undergraduate Fleeman Shines In Uncommon Territory
Walking into the garage at Atlanta Motor Speedway sporting denim shorts and flip-flops, 21-year-old Georgia Tech student Amber Fleeman isn't your typical racecar driver in the Thursday Thunder Legends Series presented by Papa John's Pizza, the track's 20-year-strong Legends and Bandolero racing series.
One minute, she's an aspiring engineer, bustling across campus between classes in the heart of Midtown Atlanta, and the next, she's racing door-to-door on AMS's quarter-mile "Thunder Ring", in full firesuit and helmet behind the wheel of her No. 98 Legends car, while competing against the best drivers from around the region. As one of just a handful of females in the program and not one to do much boasting, many are stunned to learn exactly what it is she does in her free time.
"I get that all the time," she said. "Actually, I usually don't tell many people at school. It's just not something that comes up in normal conversation. Georgia Tech actually did an article on me several years ago, and lots of professors and students found out, and it kind of went viral for a little bit. Everybody was like, 'Whoa, this girl is a racecar driver?'
"When you see me at school, it doesn't really match to what you see at the racetrack."
But since she was just nine years old, that's what Fleeman has been: a racecar driver, thanks in large part to her father, Russell, a decorated pro late model driver and currently a driver in Thursday Thunder's Racing Radios Pro Division. In a typically male-dominated sport, she has kept pace with her peers every step of the way. From go-karts, to Bandoleros, and right on up to Legends, her navy-blue car and neon-colored numbers have been a mainstay on local race tracks all across Georgia.
At some point along the way, her competitive racing turned from weekend hobby into future career ambitions where she can fully immerse herself into the world of racing and the science of race cars. Now a college student in one of the country's premier technical institutions and with graduation on the horizon, the reality of a career in racing is becoming more and more real by the day.
"I'm majoring in mechanical engineering, so hopefully when I get out, I'll go straight into engineering within the racing industry," she said. "That's the goal at this point."
Of course, with racing in her blood from a young age, a budding career in the industry won't keep her from behind the wheel herself. Even as she prepares for her final year at college, Fleeman always finds time to wrench on her car and make it to the track in time to do the thing she loves.
"It's different (being a full-time college student and racecar driver). During the summer, it's not so bad, because I'm racing all the time and taking a break from school," she said. "But during the school year, it's a little more difficult. You've got to juggle racing on the weekends and studying. But it's worked out for me. I only have a year (of college) left, so not too much longer.
"The hopes are that when I get out of school, I'll still be into racing. I'll hopefully be doing engineering and racing. I'll still be involved, it may just not be in the same way that I'm used to being in it."
One thing that will undoubtedly make it hard to stay off the track even despite the rising demands of her impending vocation, is the recent success she's experienced behind the wheel during the 2017 Thursday Thunder season. After nearly a decade mastering the difficult flat conditions and varying surfaces of the Thunder Ring oval at AMS, she finally realized the one thing that has eluded her over the years: a well-deserved trip to Victory Lane.
https://us.vocuspr.com/Publish/2464767/vcsPRAsset_2464767_96908_d6220791-86fe-4162-b0cc-efa2fbf14fbc_0.JPGTaking advantage of a front-row starting position for the Week 5 Semi-Pro Division feature race, Fleeman showed good entry and exit speed in the corners to stay at - or near - the front of the pack the entire way and used a late-race pass to claim her first-ever Thursday Thunder victory. She described the feeling of taking the checkered flag ahead of every other car in the race as one of the most amazing feelings ever.
"It was huge," she said. "It was eight years in the making. I've been trying to go for that win for eight years between Bandos and Legends cars, and it just hasn't worked out year after year. It usually takes me until the end of the season to get my momentum rolling, and then by that point, you lose time."
With the victory midway through the season and a couple of solid top-five finishes so far in 2017, Fleeman has positioned herself favorably for a shot at the elusive season championship. With three races to go entering tomorrow night's Week 8 action, she sits just 21 points off the lead in a tight Semi-Pro Division with a bunched group of the top seven drivers all separated by less than 30 points.
"I think the momentum of that win will hopefully help us," she said. "It definitely gave me a lot of confidence and momentum to roll into these last (three) races of the season. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping the momentum will be good for us."
No matter the outcome of the 2017 racing season, Fleeman has a promising future ahead of her both behind the wheel and as a professional within the industry, and she credits the people around her for the encouragement she's experienced thus far.
"Everyone is super supportive of it. I put a lot of my school into my racing. A lot of my friends come to support me, so it's a lot of fun to put those together."
For more information about Atlanta Motor Speedway's Legends and Bandolero racing program, or to purchase tickets to Thursday Thunder, fans can contact the AMS ticket office at (770) 946-4211, (877) 9-AMS-TIX or visit www.atlantamotorspeedway.com.
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Cola's Cabrice To Develop Heat-Eliminating Material
A nano-materials startup has scored a $1.5 million investment to solve the cause of exploding smartphones and consumer electronics.
Carbice, a Georgia Tech spinoff and ATDC company, has developed a thermal tape that helps prevent electronic devices from overheating and potentially catching on fire.
"People are trying to put more hot components in smaller boxes,” Carbice CEO Bara Cola said, referring to the plethora of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, graphics and other chips. Overheating in electronics not only can trigger fires, but can make devices energy hogs.
The seed investment was co-led by TechSquare Labs and GRA Venture Fund.
Carbice's heat-conducting tape, made of aluminum foil and carbon nanotubes (cylindrical carbon molecules), replaces hundreds of products used to dissipate heat generated in smartphones, cable set-top boxes and other devices.
“It's the greenest adhesive material in the world for the semiconductor industry," Cola claimed. "Our raw materials are recycled aluminum, iron and carbon gas, and the tape is easy to remove to help reduce electronic component waste."
The tape, which looks like Reynold’s wrap spray-painted black, is eight times more conductive than copper, Cola said. The tape replaces four heat-dissipating materials used in cable set-top boxes, reducing the cost by 40 percent.
Carbice (which stands for Carbon Interfaces Cooling Electronics) is currently prototyping the tape and plans to manufacture the product in Georgia.
Early applications include satellite development, semiconductor testing, and home gateway products, such as set-top boxes and routers.
"We are going after the markets that make the most sense for our stage and have the biggest draw right now,” Cola said.
The problem of overheating in electronics was highlighted by last year’s high-profile and expensive recall of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 phablets. Several of the devices caught fire following battery failures.
Computing speed and battery life aren't the real obstacles to technology innovation — it's heat management, said Allen Nance, partner at investor TechSquare Labs.
“Addressing that is a huge opportunity to drive innovation and build a big meaningful company,” Nance said.
Carbice will use the seed investment to test the product with early customers, including IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and a major set-top box maker. Cola expects customers to introduce devices with Carbice's product in 2019.
Even if Carbice is able to successfully commercialize its technology, the startup must deal with a long sales cycle.
Electronic devices are in design for years before they go into production, Nance said. "The sales process is long and complicated," he said.
In addition to the seed investment, Carbice has received $1.6 million in grants from the National Science Foundation SBIR Program and Army Research Lab.
- Urvaksh Karkaria, Atlanta Business Chronicle
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Leamy Receives NSF EFRI Grant for Research
Through a four-year, $2 million Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Woodruff School Associate Professor Michael J. Leamy will investigate a new class of reciprocity-breaking acoustic systems characterized by nonlinear internal structures, asymmetry and mixed scales.
Dr. Leamy, principal investigator, will work along-side Chiara Daraio at Caltech, and Sameh Tawfick and Alexander Vakakis at the University of Illinois on the project entitled “Non-reciprocity in Acoustic Systems with Nonlinear Hierarchial Internal Structure and Asymmetry.” The proposal originated in conversations between Leamy, Vakakis and Daraio at a Euromech colloquim in Grenoble, France, where the researchers discussed their mutual work on breaking reciprocity using nonlinearity and asymmetry – a goal that has received a swell of attention for breaking time reversal symmetry in linear systems. Tawfick later joined the team as a fabrication expert and when the EFRI issued the call for proposals, the team felt they could address the problem of non-reciprocity in a way others were not considering -- a novelty Dr. Leamy believes has contributed to the team’s success.
Leamy’s research will investigate new theoretical and practical knowledge on the application of nonlinearity, asymmetry, and mixed scales to design and fabricate ground-breaking materials and devices, yielding materials which overcome traditional bounds on time-reversal symmetry and acoustic reciprocity. The research aims to transform the field of nonlinear acoustics, promoting a new paradigm for predictive design with nonlinear non-reciprocity.
These transformative reciprocity-breaking materials and systems, which exhibit directed cross-scale energy transfers breaking time reversibility and reciprocity both locally and globally, are expected to find wide application in diverse fields, including noise-mitigating transportation systems; medical ultrasound devices; atomic force microscope (AFM) sensing; acoustic filters and logic devices; sonar; and energy control and redirection.
“Our attack on breaking reciprocity is broadband in nature and ‘giant,’ meaning the materials and structures we are developing will break reciprocity over a large frequency range, and will nearly-completely block transmission of acoustic energy in one direction and not the other,” explains Leamy. “We believe these traits make the research applicable to a wide variety of acoustic devices.”
The research will also provide planned curriculum development and outreach activities aimed at increasing exposure of engineering students, and the public, to the exciting physics of acoustic materials, promoting interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “We believe the fundamental nature of the work makes it attractive as an education vehicle. For example, we plan to work with a mathematician at Clark Atlanta University in order to bring the ideas to mathematics undergraduate students with underrepresented backgrounds,” says Leamy.
At the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Leamy serves as Associate Professor of Acoustics/Dynamics and was awarded the 2017 Woodruff Faculty Fellow Award in recognition of his exceptional research initiatives. His research interests lie in emerging and multidisciplinary areas of engineering science with an emphasis on simulating nonlinear dynamic behavior present in structures and materials, and center on developing analytical and computational models capable of capturing linear and nonlinear response in systems ranging from the macro- to the nano-scale. Leamy’s research has been supported by the Ford Motor Corporation, General Motors, Ferrari S.p.A., the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, Électricité de France, and ThyssenKrupp Elevator America.
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Synthetic Cartilage Pioneered at Georgia Tech Now Used in Implants
It is revolutionary technology in the medical world. Material created at Georgia Tech and now manufactured in Alpharetta is quickly gaining popularity. Synthetic cartilage known as “Cartiva” was developed by Woodruff School Lawrence P. Huang Endowed Chair in Engineering and Entrepreneurship and Regents' Professor David KU, and is now being implanted in patients in the United States and beyond.
“I love him to death but it is because of him I had to get rid of my heels and change the way I was living my life,” shared Randee Lieppe.
Lieppe stepped outside her Sandy Springs home barefoot one night to track down her dog Gilligan and stepped on a tree root pushing up here big toe.
“I felt...something tore,” Lieppe recalled.
At first cortisone shots helped, but eventually Lieppe developed arthritis and a bone spur in her big toe.
“I was miserable,” Lieppe explained.
Until recently, her only option was surgery that would have left her without motion in her toe and a long recovery. Then Doctor John Gleason at Resurgens Orthopedics told her about a new FDA-approved procedure using the Cartiva implant.
“It is spongy like silicon but it is firmer so that it gives resistance…it relieves the pain similar to a fusion but it maintains the motion,” Dr. Gleason contended.
Cartiva is the only synthetic cartilage cleared for use in the United States. It is now made locally at the Cartiva lab in Alpharetta.
“If it can hold up to the stress of the forces that go across the big toe than it will be successful in other joints too,” Dr. Gleason argued.
Dr. Gleason expects the Cartiva synthetic cartilage will soon be used to treat other joints including knees and hands.
Lieppe is glad to have the Cartiva implant now.
“I love it. It is great. I am back in some heels and starting to get back to my normal life style,” Lieppe said.
- Kim Passoth, CBS46
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ME Researchers Embark on Landmark Seat Elevation Study
Quantum Rehab® and Georgia Tech have embarked on a landmark research study that examines how power adjustable seat height is used in the everyday lives of wheelchair users.
“We know that power adjustable seat height is playing a vital clinical role in users’ lives,” shares Jeannie Sayre, Quantum’s vice president of clinical development. “Some users still face funding barriers to this clinically-necessary mobility technology, so this research study will ideally clarify through data as to why funding sources should cover it for those in need.”
Georgia Tech’s Rehabilitation Engineering and Applied Research Lab has already conducted a pilot survey on seat elevation. It found 84% of participants used the technology for increased safety and independence during activities of daily living such as transferring, reaching, and preparing meals.
The current study, led by Woodruff School Design, Mechanical Engineering, and Bioengineering Professor Stephen Sprigle and Senior Research Scientist Sharon Sonenblum, seeks to expand the scope of the survey by using a larger participant group and data-logging technology. It will also feature ecological momentary assessment, or real-time prompting of users to gain information to create a real-world portrayal of how seat elevation is used daily and its clinical benefits to users. “We want to make sure it’s a true representation—across ages, disability types, geographical areas,” said Julie Piriano, vice president of clinical education and rehab industry affairs, and the compliance officer for Pride Mobility Products/Quantum Rehab, which is sponsoring the study. Adds Sonenblum, “Understanding how people interact with their assistive technology in the real world is at the heart of our research, and is key to improving device prescription and design.”
The study will be key to industry efforts seeking widespread coverage for seat elevation technology. While getting coverage is a process that takes time, good research can speed that along. “For powered tilt, there was no code or coverage criteria at first,” Piriano said. “But it took less time to get (compared to other technology) because there was research behind it very quickly.”
The study is ongoing through 2017, and its protocols are overseen by Georgia Tech’s Institutional Review Board and follow the guidelines set forth by Good Publication Practice for Communicating Company-Sponsored Medical Research, GPP3. The results of the study will be published and presented by Georgia Tech once completed.
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Shi, L
Linxi Shi
Research Engineer I
Boggs, S3-19
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Blake
Samiah Blake
Courier II
MRDC, 1312
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Sreenivasan
Katepalli R. Sreenivasan
Adjunct Professor
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Internship Joins ME Researchers and Engineering Undergraduate
The SENIC Undergraduate Internship in Nanotechnology (SUIN) program is a major component of the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC), at the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology at Georgia Tech, that focuses on providing undergraduates in engineering the chance to spend a summer conducting research in a world-class collaborative lab with prominent Georgia Tech researchers. GT-IEN hosted 4 undergraduates from various U.S. colleges over the summer that engaged in hands-on research in a number of fields of nanotechnology.IEN will be highlighting the undergraduate participants, their research topics and experience in the labs, as well as what they gained from the program and their time at Georgia Tech, and in Atlanta.
The first interviewee from the program is Melanie A. Brunet Torres, an undergraduate in Chemical Engineering at Universidad de Puerto Rico.
Name: Melanie A. Brunet Torres
Mentor: Patrick Creamer
PI: Shannon Yee
1. What sparked your interest in engineering and what problems are you hoping to help solve as an engineer?
Since I was in school science and technology has always fascinated me. One of my personal and professional goals is to contribute significantly to the scientific community. After completing my bachelor’s degree in biomedical science, I decided to study chemical engineering. Having knowledge in both fields will help me carry out investigations of great impact and significance. Acquiring new scientific knowledge and using it to solve problems that affect humanity is something that has always motivated me to study.
In the future I will carry out research in the area of bioengineering such as disease treatment, characterization of new materials for medical applications such as artificial organs, etc. Scientific knowledge has the potential to help solve problems that afflict humanity and somehow allows us to contribute so that many people in the world can have a better quality of life. This is the main motivations why I have decided to study chemical engineering and do research.
2. What research are you conducting at GT and what applications do you feel this research may have?
I’m working on manufacturing a thermal conductivity measurement device, it has about fifteen steps which can be broken down into deposition steps, photolithography and etching. This device has four suspended heater lines composed of platinum and silicon nitride. It allows us to calculate the resistance of a desired material. By introducing a known current value, we can find the voltage drop and using Ohm’s Law, we can find the materials resistance. Once we know the resistance we can find the temperature of the material and calculate the thermal conductivity. Our goal is to investigate if the polymer fiber synthesized by Prof. Wudl’s group behaves as a thermal rectifier.
Electronics cooling is a huge challenge for electronic industries. Keeping electronic devices such as computers and cellphones from overheating is important for proper functioning. Electronic components depend on the passage of electric current to perform their duties, and they become potential sites for excessive heating due to the Joule heating effect. Thermal rectifiers can control the direction in which heat flows. In most applications, thermal rectifiers need to conduct heat efficiently in one direction to carry heat away from heat generating components and insulate in the other direction to insulate the heat sensitive components.
3. What has been your favorite lab activity/ tool training/ etc. thus far and why?
My favorite lab activity has been going to the cleanroom and doing the photolithography process. It has been a challenge getting it done to perfection. I’ve faced several problems during this step and I’ve succeeded on getting it right by thinking clearly and testing out possible solutions.
One of my favorite tools is the Denton explorer E-beam evaporator. This tool evaporates metals and deposits a layer in your sample. What I like about this tool is that you can watch the metal change from solid to liquid. I’ve had the opportunity to work with gold and it turns bright yellow like lava. Another tool that I’ve enjoyed using is the Hitachi SU8230. It’s amazing the resolution and details that you can see in your sample using this tool. I’ve been trained in 10 tools so far and I enjoy using each one of them.
4. Do you feel this REU experience has helped prepare you for working in a collaborative laboratory environment and furthered your education goals?
This REU experience has given me the opportunity to experience what graduate students do. It has been interesting to see how often we’re faced with new problems in our project and by brainstorming we start coming up with possible solutions and testing them out in the lab. If you want to be good in what you do you have to work intense to obtain the results that you want. Thanks to this experience I know that research is meant for me. I’ve enjoyed going every day to the lab, working hard, reading papers and learning new information about my project. I’m more than sure that after I finish my undergraduate studies I’ll be going to grad school. I want to gain as much knowledge as possible in a specific field so that one day I can use that knowledge to change the world.
5. What are your plans post-undergraduate?
After finishing my bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, I wish to continue my studies in graduate school doing a PhD in bioengineering. Among my future plans are also to do postdoctoral research and be a university professor and researcher.
6. What is your favorite thing about/impression of GA Tech and ATL?
The first thing that impressed me was how big and beautiful the campus is. I enjoy walking in campus and watching the birds and squirrels, it’s very relaxing. Another thing that impressed me is the modern buildings that they have. I work in the Marcus building and it’s equipped with the latest technology, also it has an amazing cleanroom filled with a variety of tools. One thing that I liked about visiting Atlanta was going to the Centennial Olympic Park and the aquarium, it was my first time visiting one so I was very excited.
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Woodruff School Graduate Students Awarded Hearst Fellowship
Three Woodruff School graduate students, Terese Martinez, George Peters, and Chelsea Siberglied, were awarded the 2017-2018 William Randolph Hearst Fellowship. Fellowship recipients bring exemplary levels of scholarship and innovation to the academic departments that host their study and research and are selected based on their academic record, standardized test scores, education goals, and letters of recommendation.
The William Randolph Hearst Fellowship Fund in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech was established by an endowment from the William Randolph Foundation. The William Randolph Hearst Fellowship seeks to attract students of color or women who intend to pursue their master's degree in engineering, and a limited number of William Randolph Hearst Fellowships are awarded each academic year.
The fellowship provides an annual stipend of $6,000 for nine months of full-time enrollment and is intended as a supplemental award that may be held in addition to other fellowships.
The Hearst Foundations are national philanthropic resources for organizations working in the fields of culture, education, health and social services. The Hearst Foundations identify and fund outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States have the opportunity to build healthy, productive and inspiring lives. Since inception, the Foundations have made over 20,000 grants totaling more than $1 billion.
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Keller
Andrew Keller
Electrical Engineer II
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Brown
Daphne Brown
Administrative Professional III
Boggs 3-44B
404.385.5502
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Murdock
Frank Harless Murdock
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Carroll
Matthew
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NRE Graduate Student Awarded INL Postdoctoral Appointment
INL Welcomes First Deslonde de Boisblanc Distinguished Postdoctoral AppointeesIdaho National Laboratory is pleased to welcome Woodruff School NRE graduate student Abdalla Abou Jaoude and Oregon State University's Dr. Thomas V. Holschuh II as the first two Deslonde de Boisblanc distinguished postdoctoral appointees.
The appointments are competitively awarded to early career researchers who embody the spirit of ingenuity of de Boisblanc and who have leadership potential. Deslonde de Boisblanc is most well-known for designing the Advanced Test Reactor’s famous clover-leaf core. His unique design allows multiple nuclear fuels and materials to be tested at the same time in the same reactor at different power levels. The appointment is designed for early career scientists and engineers to perform leading-edge research and development for advanced power reactor design and development and to support ongoing studies at INL research reactor facilities.
“The arrival of the first two Deslonde de Boisblanc Distinguished Postdoctoral appointments will help inspire our research and bring fresh perspectives to INL – something that will leave a lasting impact. Without de Boisblanc’s inspiration, we wouldn’t be where we are today.” said Dr. Kelly Beierschmitt, INL deputy laboratory director for science and technology and chief research officer.
Holschuh graduated from Oregon State University with a doctorate in nuclear engineering in June 2017. His doctoral research evaluated using a new detecting method, the Cherenkov Radiation Assay for Nuclear Kinetics (CRANK) system, to accurately determine reactor kinetics parameters. Holschuh will be using the same technique to perform observations of INL’s Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) under the guidance of his future mentor, Dan Wachs, who leads the transient testing experimental program.
“We’ve been working with Tommy for several years and are looking forward to his return to INL,” said Dr. David Chichester, an INL directorate fellow and Holschuh’s mentor during his graduate internship. “With key skills in reactor physics and radiation science, he’s going to be making important contributions to our nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation research programs.”
The second appointee, Abdalla Abou Jaoude, is scheduled to begin his appointment in January 2018 following the completion of his doctorate in December 2017. Abou Jaoude is currently a doctoral candidate in nuclear and radiological engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His doctoral research focus is neutronics, core design, simulation methods and nuclear nonproliferation. When his appointment begins, he will work with mentor Gilles Youinou on the design and evaluation of a mixed-spectrum molten chloride test reactor.
“Abdalla has an exceptional ability to see the big picture when it comes to a reactor design. He has all it takes – motivation, scholarship and talent – to become a leader in advanced reactor development,” said Dr. Anna Erickson, Abou Jaoude’s supervising professor at GIT.
INL’s first distinguished postdoctoral appointee, Dr. Cheng Sun, was named to the Russell L. Heath distinguished postdoctoral appointment in October 2016.
“Appointing two excellent researchers to the first de Boisblanc postdoc positions reflects on the high caliber of the applicants in a very competitive selection process. These individuals will help define a new standard of excellence in advanced reactor design and application at INL,” said Dr. Sean O’Kelly, associate laboratory director for the Advanced Test Reactor.
INL is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories. The laboratory performs work in each of DOE’s strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science and environment. INL is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development. Day-to-day management and operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Battelle Energy Alliance.
- INL News, Julie Ulrich
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Torello
David Torello
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Yang
Xiaofeng Yang
Adjunct Assistant Professor
404.778.8622
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