Working professionals can now pursue their PhD in nuclear engineering through distance education at NC State University. The ability to advance one’s career while continuing in the work world is a win-win proposition for the post-graduate professional and their employer.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lift-Off Reports, among other opportunities, point to the need for 375,000 personnel; some of these professionals will be at the doctoral level. The DOE awarded $4.6 million in seventeen awards to U.S. businesses via the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program to fund public-private partnerships and accelerate fusion research. Other drivers include recent legislation – the ADVANCE Act boosts nuclear reactor deployment in the United States.

Overall, students will have an opportunity to work on grand challenges within nuclear science and technology, contributing to new knowledge and moving the discipline even further ahead.

Sample faculty research – 

• Igor Bolotnov specializes in computational fluid dynamics applications in nuclear reactor engineering in general, and in multiphase turbulent flow in particular. He is a recent recipient of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Thermo-hydraulics Division (THD)Bal-Raj Sehgal Memorial Award. It is given to an early-career to mid-career individual for their exceptional and/or sustained contributions to the thermal-hydraulics field with a particular focus on the application of thermal-hydraulics to nuclear reactor safety.
  
  
• Amanda Lietz specializes in computational modeling of low temperature plasmas for a wide variety of applications, including medicine, chemical processing, and the production of computer chips. She is a DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program awardeefor her project “Incorporating Kinetic Effects in Fluid Models of Low Temperature Plasmas via Machine Learning.”
  
  
• Yousry Azmy, Jason Hou, John Mattingly and Xu Wu will receive $2.5 million over 5 years for their research contributions in the Enabling Capabilities in Technology Consortium. It is a collaborative effort making the link between basic research to advance technical capabilities in support of nuclear security and nonproliferation missions of U.S. DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), enabling an effective pipeline of talented next-generation experts to establish careers at DOE national laboratories.

Faculty and student research show the breadth and depth of new and continuing work. NC State Nuclear Engineering is a premier department with a rich tradition that continues today. The graduate program is ranked 3^rd by the US News and World Report, a distinction held for the last 6 years. The Department has undertaken a feasibility study on establishing an advanced research and test reactor. Research can be pursued in these areas –

Contacts –
Dr. Igor Bolotnov, Professor & Director of Graduate Programs
Dr. John Mattingly, Professor of Nuclear Engineering