NC State Nuclear Engineering ranked 3rd in the nation

The US News & World Report released their 2021 rankings and NC State Nuclear Engineering Graduate Program is #3 (#3 in 2019 & 2020). And among public universities, NC State Nuclear Engineering ranks #2.

“This ranking reflects the strategical growth, optimal diversification, and efficient streamlining of our graduate program over the last six years with focus on innovative PhD research and further enhancements of its distance education components”, states Dr. Kostadin Ivanov, Department Head and Professor.

Departmental highlights include,

  • Organization of the American Nuclear Society Student Conference on April 8-10. This conference will virtually bring together over 400 students from across the nation to showcase their research and network with top nuclear professionals.
  • Participation in the Nuclear Science & Security Consortium where co-principal investigators (co-PIs) Dr. Djamel Kaoumi, associate professor in Nuclear Engineering and  Tim Horn, assistant professor in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering will lead for NC State University. This $25 million, 11-university, 5-national laboratory project is funded by the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration.
  • Collaboration with Terrapower and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy as well as X-Energy on two $80 million US Department of Energy-funded projects. These advanced nuclear reactors will be delivered for licensing within seven years and contribute to national clean energy initiatives. Faculty involved include Ivanov, Hawari, Avramova, Hou, Diaconeasa, Dinh & Gupta.
  • Leadership of the National Organization of Test, Research and Training Reactors (TRTR) under the chairmanship of Dr. Ayman Hawari. TRTR supports and represents the interests of nearly 40 academic and nonacademic research reactors in the US.
  • Partnership with Dr. Steven Shannon and Karamedica, Inc. to continue developing a microparticle therapy for treating cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), a condition responsible for inflicting significant neurologic damage and afflicting greater than 85% of Alzheimer’s patients.

Twenty-three (3) tenured/tenure-track faculty members along with three (3) research professors contribute to research foci and cross-cutting areas in –

  • Reactor Systems Engineering
  • Radiation Interactions & Detection
  • Plasma Science & Engineering
  • Nuclear Fuel & Materials
  • Modelling & Simulation
  • Nuclear Waste Management
  • Nuclear Security & Non-Proliferation
  • Nuclear Reactor Program
  • Health Physics

The 2020 fact sheet is available here. Further details on innovative research, cutting-edge curricula as well as exciting news and upcoming events are available here.