Congratulations to Dr. Maria Avramova, Professor and University Faculty Scholar at NC State University (NCSU). Avramova will be one of five fellows honored at the opening plenary of the 2023 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Annual Conference. Maria has been an ANS member since 2002. Her election to the rank of Fellow recognizes the contributions Dr. Avramova has made to the advancement of nuclear science and technology through notable original research or invention in the nuclear field. This is the ANS’s highest membership grade to which only a small group of nuclear science and engineering professionals are elected.
Dr. Avramova is also the Director of Consortium for Nuclear Power (CNP), and the Coordinator of CTF User’s Group. Her research areas include reactor thermal hydraulics, core design, transient and safety analysis, multi-physics and multi-scale simulations, verification and validation, and uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. CNP promotes research and development, innovation, education, and training as well as provision of technical support, expert advice, and consultancy services benefiting the nuclear industry and its regulation. The CTF User Group maintains the “gold-standard” of CTF, providing unified and up-to-date code version supplemented with extended verification and validation suite, automated test matrix, and application guidelines. Dr. Avramova is the Co-Chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Expert Group on Reactor Core Thermal-Hydraulics and Mechanics (EGTHM). Dr. Avramova has made international recognized research innovations and sustained scientific leadership in development of core thermal-hydraulics and multi-physics modeling and simulation, verification and validation, and uncertainty quantification for nuclear reactor design and safety analyses. Her efforts have been vital for providing predictive accuracy with quantified confidence and computational efficiency.
Dr. Avramova has graduated twenty-five PhD students, twenty-five MS’s, and forty-six MEng’s at Pennsylvania State University and NCSU. Dr. Avramova has organized and delivered seventeen invited courses at different international institutions; and has conducted more than fifty international workshops, seminars, and invited talks. She has served in nine M.S., Ph.D., and Sc.D. committees in foreign academic institutions; and has hosted sixteen visiting scholars from international institutions. Dr. Avramova has published one book chapter, seventy peer-reviewed journal articles and one hundred fifty peer-reviewed papers in conference and meeting proceedings.