Message from the Chair

As we start the Fall semester, it’s definitely a season of change. The NEEP department has nearly 70 new undergraduates and nearly 30 new graduate students. The engineering campus has become a large construction site, beginning with utility work necessary to support the long-awaited new engineering building. Dean Robertson announced that he would be stepping down and we have begun a search for his successor. Two of our faculty have retired and we are launching a search for three new faculty colleagues. As you can see, there is a lot going on.

It’s now been a full year in our new configuration as the Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics, and we continue to settle into our new identity and bring focus to our mission. Like any nuclear engineering department, much of our research covers a broad set of technologies that support the development of nuclear energy beyond the core topic (pun-intended!) of reactor physics. Most closely related are topics of thermal-hydraulics, materials and the chemistry of fuel cycles, but those lead to systems engineering domains including design & optimization, safety & licensing, and instrumentation, control & data analytics. Finally, in ways that are sometimes unique to nuclear energy, are the interfaces with society: techno-economics, nuclear security & non-proliferation, and social license. What sets us apart from our peers, however, is that we consider two different types of cores equally at the center of this nuclear energy map: fission and fusion. Combining our department’s history of excellence in nuclear engineering and our campus’ legacy of leadership in plasma physics and fusion, we are uniquely positioned to bridge the technology gap between fission and fusion systems. This unique balance will inform our search for three new faculty members over the coming year, growing by 25%.
Some of the motivation for this hiring is bittersweet: we waved goodbye to Wendy Crone and Carl Sovinec this summer, both deciding to retire and enrich their lives beyond their academic pursuits. Wendy’s engineering mechanics research program was one of the first to connect to nuclear engineering applications in the early years of the Engineering Physics program, but in recent years has focused on mechanics of human tissue in support of cardiovascular research. She has been a long time leader in our department, including three years as the Associate Dean and then Interim Dean of the Graduate School. Closer to home, she was a driving force behind the design and administration of our Engineering Physics undergraduate program, including authoring a book that offers an “Introduction to Engineering Research.” Carl Sovinec (who started on the same day as I did 23 years ago) has pursued a research effort in theoretical and computational magneto-hydrodynamics, specifically phenomena that lead to rearrangement of magnetic configurations, including disruptions that are expected to be a challenge for tokamak devices. He also held a vital role as our Associate Chair for Graduate Studies for many years and was the Director of the UW Officer Training Program, providing faculty oversight to the Departments of Military Science, Naval Science, and Air Force Aerospace Studies. On a personal note, both have provided me with valuable insights and advice throughout my career and especially as department chair for the last five years. We will miss their scholarship, wisdom and service to our department, but with them many years of happy retirement.
If you find yourself in Madison and want to see the change in person, feel free to stop by, but you may want to park elsewhere and walk over to view the construction progress. On, Wisconsin!
Paul Wilson
Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering