Matthew Zimmer, a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University, was one of four recipients of the 2016 Rickover Fellowship Program in Nuclear Engineering awarded by the South Carolina Universities Research & Education Foundation (SCUREF).

In order to qualify for this fellowship, a student must conduct research in an area of reactor’s physics, materials science, thermal hydraulics and computational fluid dynamics or shielding. SCUREF’s goal is to advance research and education programs in energy, national security, environmental management and health-related areas in institutions and universities in the United States.

His fellowship advisor, Kevin Cope, who is employed by Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL), is conducting similar research. Cope will provide feedback and ideas for Zimmer’s research at NC State. The fellowship also requires Zimmer to work as an intern at KAPL for two summers during his graduate studies and two years as an employee working under Cope. Zimmer said he looks forward to the positive impact that his future work at a state-of-the-art lab will have on his career.

Zimmer comes from Harvard, Massachusetts, a small town of approximately 6,000 people founded on the economy of the apple. He completed his undergraduate degree in nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he first began researching two-phase flow with a professor. He knew that he wanted to continue that research for his Ph.D., which his fellowship allows him to do without the stress of funding. In his words, the choice to pursue his graduate studies at NC State was an easy one.

He eagerly anticipates his next three years of research advised by Dr. Igor Bolotnov, assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, who he said is intelligent, personable and the “perfect fit” for his research interests. His focus at NC State consists of using a Direct Numerical Simulation code called PHASTA to study two-phase flow. Specifically, Zimmer will study a phenomenon called flow regime transition and provide insight into its cause.

Zimmer is one of six outstanding students in the Department of Nuclear Engineering who received a national fellowship to continue with graduate research.