Symposium

About

Schedule

Poster Competition

Guests

George Evans
George Evans is a Research Scientist at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex. He works on characterizing the thermophysical properties of nuclear materials before irradiation, providing important baseline data for fuel performance studies.
George earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Brigham Young University–Idaho, during which he participated in extracurricular research and in internships here at BYU, at Idaho National Laboratory, and at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
George is passionate about nuclear energy and materials science and encourages students to explore careers in these fields, where they can help solve complex challenges and shape the future of technology.
You can view his slides here: Thermal Properties of Nuclear Materials

Jeff Parish
Jeff Parish is a Mechanical Engineer with a background in Physics, Chemistry, and thermodynamics, and 35 years of experience in industry. His expertise with severe service control valves includes experience with many salts, including Nitrate, Chloride, FLiNaK, NaOH, and now FLiBe.
Jeff currently works for Commonwealth Fusion Systems as their Principal Molten Salt Component Specialist.

Peter Jenkins
Dr. Jenkins earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Utah and brings a uniquely broad background to his work — including military service as a Captain in the Army National Guard and prior service as an infantry Marine. Early in his career he was selected as a Department of Energy Applied Health Physics Fellow at Oak Ridge, and he is now board-certified by both the American Board of Radiology and the American Board of Health Physics. He currently serves as Director of Medical Imaging Physics and Radiation Safety and as an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at the University of Utah. In that role he sits at the intersection of nuclear engineering, radiation physics, and clinical medicine — making him exceptionally well positioned to speak on the emerging field of theranostics. He has long been a voice on radiation policy in our state, having served as Chairman of the Utah Radiation Control Board, and his teaching and research in radiopharmaceutical physics and radiation dosimetry are directly relevant to the challenges and opportunities he'll be discussing today.

Emily Young
Emily Young in an engineering leader who has been working in the nuclear power industry for over a decade. Following receipt of her MS and BS degrees in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University, Emily worked for an electric utility, supporting their nuclear reactor fleet. She performed system thermal hydraulic safety analyses for operating pressurized water reactors in support of fuel reload and licensing efforts. In 2020, Emily transitioned to working at TerraPower, where she performed engineering safety analysis for the Natrium^TM Sodium Fast Reactor project. She is now the Senior Manager of the System Thermal Hydraulics Analysis teams, which are responsible for performing complex thermal hydraulic simulations of sodium through the reactor core and throughout the primary heat transport system, and additionally support the testing programs for code verification activities.

Annual BYU ANS Symposium