Nuclear science and engineering

“I was interested in clean energy. In a physics textbook, on literally the last page, they made a reference to fusion, ‘the power source of the future.’ I was intrigued and decided to find out more,” says PhD candidate Brandon Sorbom.

Brandon Sorbom: Designing a fusion future

PhD candidate explores a faster, high-magnetic-field pathway to fusion energy.

January 23, 2017

Professor Emeritus Otto Harling was director of the MIT Nuclear Reactor Lab from1976 to 1996.

Otto Harling, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering, dies at 85

Longtime Nuclear Research Lab director made advances in nuclear and condensed-matter physics, nuclear materials, reactor technology, and nuclear medicine.

January 12, 2017

"There is a reason I stayed at MIT at every opportunity. When it comes down to it, there’s just nowhere in the world with the same caliber of faculty and students," Michael Short says.

Inspired by radiation

Nuclear scientist Michael Short aims to understand the full range of defects produced when materials are exposed to radiation.

January 6, 2017

Featured video: Touring MIT's nuclear facilities

Two graduate students provide an inside look at MIT's network of nuclear facilities and labs that mimic the footprint of a national lab.

January 3, 2017

A new system to monitor radiation damage in a material creates acoustic oscillations by using two pulsed laser beams aimed at a sample, in such a way that the light waves of the two beams cause an interference pattern. This interference pattern causes heating at the sample surface, generating a standing acoustic wave. The motion of the surface caused by this wave can be monitored by another set of...

Measuring radiation damage on the fly

Technique could continuously assess aging of materials in a high-radiation environment, in real-time.

December 13, 2016

“My parents loved the idea of me being a doctor, and then when I decided on nuclear engineering, they wanted me to look into medical physics,” says Caroline Colbert, a senior in nuclear science and engineering.

Caroline Colbert: Paving a path to medicine

Nuclear science and engineering senior Caroline Colbert has found herself on an unexpected career path in the medical field.

December 12, 2016

MIT senior Rasheed Auguste’s parents emigrated from Haiti to Boston as teenagers and completed master’s degrees in the U.S. “When I was born, the standard was, ‘we have master’s degrees; a PhD is the next step for this next generation.’ That was always the bar,” says Auguste. “It just so happens I got lucky. I actually do want this PhD that was prescribed from birth.”

Nuclear engineering student advocates for change on campus and Capitol Hill

Senior Rasheed Auguste is fueled by passions for science, policy, and creating a more inclusive MIT.

December 7, 2016

Images produced from computer simulations show the response of a graphene surface as a silicon tip slides over it. Relative forces of atomic friction on the surface are shown by colors: Red points are “pushing” sites that help propel the tip along the surface, while blue points are “pinning” sites of greater friction that inhibit the tip’s motion.

The science of friction on graphene

Sliding on flexible graphene surfaces has been uncharted territory until now.

November 23, 2016

“As a child I would throw a ball through the air and wonder why it made a curved shape; I would hold an ice cube in my hand and wonder at the processes that made it melt. And it turned out there are physical models for all those things and you can explain them somehow with math. That was just really beautiful for me,” says MIT graduate student Libby Tolman.

Fusing theory and practice

Grad student Libby Tolman melds the elegance of theoretical physics with practical applications of nuclear science.

November 14, 2016

First row (left to right): Matteo Bucci, Tal Cohen, and Ali Jadbabaie. Second row (left to right): Zachary P. Smith, Stefanie Mueller, Adam Belay, David Sontag, and Virginia Vassilevska Williams. Third row (left to right): Max Shulaker, Jennifer Rupp, Ryan Williams, Carmen Guerra-Garcia, and Zachary Hartwig

New engineering faculty for 2016-2017

The School of Engineering welcomes 13 new professors.

October 27, 2016

Alex Tingly (right), a graduate student in the Department of Physics, and senior research scientist Earl Marmar, head of the Alcator C-Mod project since 2002, review data on synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in plasma.

High-intensity fusion

MIT’s Alcator C-Mod nuclear reactor winds down — and defines its legacy on its final run.

October 14, 2016

The interior of the fusion experiment Alcator C-Mod at MIT recently broke the plasma pressure record for a magnetic fusion device. The interior of the donut-shaped device confines plasma hotter than the interior of the sun, using high magnetic fields. Postdoc Ted Golfinopoulos, shown here, is performing maintenance between plasma campaigns.

New record for fusion

Alcator C-Mod tokamak nuclear fusion reactor sets world record on final day of operation.

October 14, 2016

ABRACADABRA (A Broadband/Resonant Approach to Cosmic Axion Detection with an Amplifying B-field Ring Apparatus), consists of a series of magnetic coils, wound in the shape of a toroid, or donut, which is then encased in a layer of superconducting metal and kept at temperatures just above absolute zero. The scientists plan to use a highly sensitive magnetometer, placed inside the donut hole, to det...

Team simulates a magnetar to seek dark matter particle

Detecting “axion” particles may solve longstanding problem in particle physics.

October 7, 2016

“Science was always second-nature to me since I was a kid. I spent a lot of time just tinkering around, breaking stuff apart and building it back up,” says Benoit Forget, associate professor in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Benoit Forget: Unraveling complexities of nuclear reactors

By making detailed simulations of reactor cores, the MIT engineer is helping to advance new designs.

October 3, 2016

MIT Communication Lab Director Jaime Goldstein says a new online tool will help deadline-driven graduate students write at any hour of the day.

Engineer, explain thyself

A new online tool helps graduate students communicate — in their own languages.

September 27, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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