- Nathalie Wall was raised in France and now serves as interim director of UF’s Nuclear Engineering Program.
- Her research bridges fundamental radiochemistry with real-world challenges, from nuclear waste disposal to ecological studies.
- As UF’s WIN advisor, Wall champions gender representation in a field that remains dominated by men.
French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Nathalie Labonne, Ph.D., had both a goal and a plan. She would take a one-year postdoctoral position at Florida State University and return to her home country of France.
But that goal remained a wish, as she never returned to France. But sometimes, real life works out better than the goals and plans.
Now she is Professor Nathalie Wall, Gator Engineer.
In 1993, Wall earned her doctorate in radiochemistry at the University of Paris and started her career at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.
But when she had the opportunity to work at FSU with one of the leading figures in nuclear science, Gregory R. Choppin, Ph.D., she wasted no time purchasing her plane ticket.
“As it turns out, that ‘one-year’ plan didn’t quite hold,” she said. “On my very first day, I met my future husband, Donald Wall, Ph.D., who was working in the same lab. You could say there was a bit of chemistry involved, scientific and otherwise.”
Her next stop was the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, where she worked on the first deep geological repository for transuranic radioactive waste.
After New Mexico, a 13-year stay at Washington State University found Wall on the faculty in the chemistry department.
That is until Michael Tonks, Ph.D., current chair of UF’s Materials Science & Engineering Department, recruited her as a professor focusing on radiochemistry in UF’s Nuclear Engineering program.
The Walls packed up and moved again –– this time to Gainesville — in 2019.
In 2024, she was appointed as interim director of UF’s Nuclear Engineering Program and she also serves as the faculty advisor for the UF chapter of Women in Nuclear, or WIN.
Chemistry meets real-world challenges
“What drew me to UF was the chance to engage with nuclear science through a more explicit engineering lens — bridging disciplines and thinking about how fundamental chemistry translates into real-world nuclear technologies,” Wall said.
Her research group focuses on the chemical behavior of radioactive elements, particularly those found in nuclear waste, fuel-processing streams and nuclear forensics samples. For example, some recent work focused on preventing radionuclides from migrating into the environment.
“And occasionally, our work takes an unexpected turn. We’ve even dated — not romantically; I should clarify — crabs from the Bering Sea to help NOAA better understand population declines in that region. It may sound like a very different application, but it’s still fundamentally radiochemistry at work,” Wall said.
Hers is a radiochemistry lab, meaning they follow all standard safety protocols required for chemistry, along with additional measures specific to handling radioactive materials. Used nuclear waste is an ongoing concern, as is safety.
“Safety is the foundation of everything we do. Either we operate safely, or we don’t operate at all,” she emphasized.
But Wall sees challenges as opportunities. Within the boundaries and constraints, innovation thrives and seeks to find the intersection between safety and economic viability.
“Does that make nuclear systems expensive? Yes, it does,” she said. “The requirements for redundancy, quality assurance, rigorous testing and long-term reliability all come at a cost. But those costs are not negotiable because they are directly tied to protecting people, the environment and the field’s credibility.”
We are in a critical era of global nuclear energy; she contends.
“We’re truly experiencing a renaissance, with new reactor designs, including small modular and advanced reactors, and renewed efforts to build nuclear capacity to meet growing energy demands in the U.S. and globally,” she said.
A WINning combination
Wall is proud of her work as a faculty advisor. She said working with WIN is an honor — and necessary. According to a 2023 report from the Nuclear Energy Agency, women only made up about 25% of the nuclear workforce.
She hopes to change that statistic.
“I don’t see fundamental differences between men and women in nuclear engineering in terms of technical ability or problem-solving. The challenges we tackle require rigor, creativity and persistence — qualities that are not gender-specific,” Wall explained.
“What I do observe, though, is that representation matters. Women faculty and professionals often attract and retain more women students, simply because they provide visible role models. When students can see themselves reflected in the field, it makes a real difference in whether they feel they belong.”
UF’s WIN chapter brings together women who are interested in or already working in the nuclear field. Activities vary from study hangouts and nail painting nights to hosted meetings where the members can ask questions of women working in the field.
“WIN was created to build a sense of community, provide mentorship, and support the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in the nuclear field. It helps make visible what can sometimes feel invisible—that there are women in nuclear and that they are successful,” she explained.
Looking back, Wall contends her path to nuclear engineering wasn’t exactly a single decision but rather a series of “scientific opportunities, collaborations and, occasionally, life’s surprises that kept pulling me deeper into the field.”
So much for making plans.