Three NC State nuclear engineering students win the 2019 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award

From left to right: Dr. Ayman Hawari, Benjamin Laramee, Cole Manring and Colby Sorrell

Congratulations to Colby Sorrell, Cole Manring and Benjamin Laramee, graduate students in nuclear engineering at NC State University. They each have been awarded a prize in the Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Technology R&D. And their research papers were published in the Annals of Nuclear Energy in June 2019.

Sorrell and Manring won awards in the ‘Competition for Students at Universities with Less than $600 million in 2017 R&D Expenditures’.

Sorrell’s award-winning research paper is entitled “TREAT M2 Experiment Modeling for Transient Benchmark Analysis”. Manring’s award-winning research paper is entitled “Assessment of Thermal Neutron Scattering in a Heavy Paraffinic Molecular Material”.

In the undergraduate student competition, the award was received by the senior design team of Anna Deak, Andy Jones, Benjamin Laramee, Netra Patel, Matthew Sanderford, and Gray Taylor. The project was entitled “Load-Following Capabilities of the BWRX-300”. Their advisers include Dr. Robert Hayes, associate professor and external sponsor Dr. Christer Dahlgren from GE Power.

Doctoral students Colby Sorrell and Cole Manring as well as new graduate student, Benjamin Laramee, are advised by Dr. Ayman Hawari, Distinguished University Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Director of Nuclear Reactor Program.

In order to be successful and retain its leadership role in nuclear technologies, the United States must foster creativity and breakthrough achievements to develop tomorrow’s nuclear technologies. The Department of Energy has long recognized that university students are an important source of breakthrough solutions, and a key component in meeting its long-term goals. The Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards program was developed for this purpose.

The Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards program is designed to:

  1. award graduate and undergraduate students for innovative nuclear-technology-relevant research publications,
  2. demonstrate the Department of Energy’s commitment to higher education in nuclear-technology-relevant disciplines; and,
  3. Support communications among university students and Department of Energy representatives.

The program awarded 25 prizes in 2019 for student publications relevant to innovative nuclear technology. In addition to cash awards, award-winning students will have a variety of other opportunities.

For more information on the Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards program, visit http://www.nucleartechinnovations.org/winners2019.html.