Welcome to the University of Florida Nuclear Engineering Program home page. Housed within the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering’s Department of Materials Science & Engineering, the program offers students an opportunity to work on research teams related to backscatter radiation, extreme environments testing and nuclear fuel cycles. Students also conduct research alongside academics and in partnership with national labs and government agencies, including Idaho National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy.
At UF, we’re developing the next generation of nuclear engineering leaders by performing high-impact research and providing exceptional educational programs. We build on our unique strength as a department by combining the disciplines of both Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering to benefit society locally, nationally and globally.
(L to R) Douglas Spearot, Ph.D., Professor; Assel Aitkaliyeva, Ph.D., Associate Professor
UF Engineering Collaboration Aims to Add Decades of Safe, Clean Energy Production to U.S. Nuclear Reactors
Read More
Nuclear technology and research contribute in multiple ways to our health, development and safety. You may not realize it, but it's utilized across nearly all aspects of our lives and community, from clean energy production to medicine to agriculture.
The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering’s Research Service Centers support and enhance the research, education, and public service missions of the University of Florida by providing access to characterization and process instrumentation.
At UF, we’re developing the next generation of nuclear engineering leaders by performing high-impact research and providing exceptional educational programs.
Nuclear technology and research contribute in multiple ways to our health, development and safety. You may not realize it, but it's utilized across nearly all aspects of our lives and community, from clean energy production to medicine to agriculture.
Research Interests: Nuclear Fuels and Materials, with emphasis on characterization and property evaluation; Mechanical and Thermal properties of materials; Reactor Irradiation; Radiation damage in materials; Ion Implantation; Kinetics; Composites; Nanostructured materials; Multi-Scale simulation of nuclear fuel.
JamesBaciakProfessor, Florida Power and Light Professor
WorkNuclear Annex 113work(352) 273-2131work
Research Interests: Applied aspects of cargo monitoring, detector testing and characterization for gamma-ray spectroscopy, as well as development and analysis of techniques for environmental sampling and surveys related to on-site inspections.
AndreasEnqvistNuclear Engineering Program Director, Florida Power and Light Professor
Work100A Rhines Hallwork(352) 294-2177work
Ph. D. Chalmers, University of Technology, Sweden
Research Interests: Nuclear safeguards, detection statistics of radiation from fissile materials, and the physics behind particle-detector interactions. Neutron physics & detectors. Neutron noise signals. Radiation signal analysis
Ph.D., 2008, University of California San Diego Research Interests: Computational and Theoretical Plasma Physics, Magnetic and Inertial Confinement Fusion, Plasma Turbulence, Momentum Transport, Runaway Electrons, Monte Carlo Methods
Research Interests: Reactor Physics Experiments, Non-destructive radiation imaging, Monte-Carlo Methods, Pre and Post Irradiation Analysis, Medical Imaging, Radiation Detection
DuWayneSchubringInstructional Associate Professor, NE Undergraduate Coordinator
Work317A MAEwork(352) 294-7870work
Ph.D., 2009, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Interests: Two-phase flow, nuclear reactor thermal hydraulics, quantitative visualization, nuclear reactor safety, computational and numerical methods including coupled codes, advanced nuclear power systems
MichaelTonksProfessor and Associate Department Chair, Alumni Professor of Materials Science & Engineering
Work100D Rhines Hallwork(352) 846-3779work
Ph.D., 2008, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Research Interests: Computational materials science, Computational mechanics, Coevolution of microstructure and properties, Materials in Harsh Environments, Mesoscale modeling and simulation, Nuclear materials, Numerical methods
Research Interests: structural and fuel materials for nuclear energy systems; LWRs sustainability and aging management; advanced fabrication and joining technologies; used fuel dry storage and disposition.
Engineers from UF’s Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) are collaborating on research investigating neutron irradiation-induced embrittlement in nuclear reactor pressure vessels.
Douglas Spearot, Ph.D., professor of MAE and principal investigator, and Assel Aitkaliyeva, Ph.D., associate professor of MSE, are part of the $800,000 study. Along ...
Jennifer Andrew, Ph.D., has been promoted to full professor, and Assel Aitkaliyeva, Ph.D., has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
Dr. Andrew received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her B.S. from Northwestern University, both in Materials Science and Engineering. She joined the University of Florida in 2011 following a postdoctoral ...
Nuclear Engineering student Kaylee Cunningham wins the 2021-2022 Dean Joseph Weil Engineering Leadership Award
Check out the Attributes of a Gator Engineer page for more info!
The UF Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) and Nuclear Engineering Program (NE), housed within the department, are once again ranked among the best graduate school programs at public universities in the U.S.
According to the 2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools Ranking, the MSE graduate program rose one spot to No. ...
There are countless reasons why a student might need financial aid. Books, tuition, rent, food – the expenses add up quickly, so these scholarships and awards can make a considerable difference for the students who receive them. While academic awards come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each one helps provide valuable support to ...
The Department of Materials Science & Engineering’s Nuclear Engineering (NE) Program received three separate awards totaling approximately $1.8 million from the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), part of the U.S. Department of Energy. NEUP awards fund research and development, scholarships, infrastructure upgrades and integrated research projects at universities and colleges nationwide.
Yellowjacket Upgrades
Michael Tonks, Ph.D., Alumni ...
Robert Joseph Hanrahan, Jr. passed away on March 1st at UF Health Shands Hospital after a difficult four-month battle with an MRSA blood infection. He was 56 years old. Robert is survived by his beloved wife, Margie Foster; his mother, Mary Ellen Hanrahan; his sisters, Sheila Hanrahan Gibson (husband, Tom) and Pegeen Hanrahan (husband, Tony ...
The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has selected UF alumnus Matthew Marzano, M.S. ‘11, nuclear engineering, to serve as the 2022 Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow. Marzano is a senior reactor operator at Exelon Generation’s Braidwood nuclear power plant in Braidwood, Ill.
Established in 2000, the Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship, also known as the ANS Congressional Fellowship, ...