EP department sharpens its focus on nuclear engineering
In recent years, there has been a significant rise in companies working on advanced nuclear reactor systems and fusion technology to aid in the transition to clean energy.
It’s also perfect timing for the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics to sharpen its focus on nuclear engineering. Paul Wilson, Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering and department chair, says there’s a major opportunity for the department to grow, leverage its expertise and cutting-edge facilities, and partner with these companies on innovative fission and fusion projects.
Combining nuclear and solar tech could make a powerful pair
In energy policy debates, nuclear energy and renewable energy technologies are sometimes viewed as competitors.
In reality, they could be better, together.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ben Lindley, an assistant professor of engineering physics and an expert on nuclear reactors, and Mike Wagner, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a solar energy expert, are studying the feasibility and benefits of such a coupling.
WI State Legislators tour the Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
On June 1, a group of Wisconsin state legislators visited the engineering campus at UW-Madison to learn about the Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics (NEEP) and the future of nuclear energy in Wisconsin.
UW–Madison has long been a leader in fusion research and education
Over more than a half-century, the University of Wisconsin–Madison has become a national leader in [fusion], with dozens of researchers working on multiple large-scale projects across three departments and two colleges. While fusion and plasma experiments at UW–Madison differ from the effort at Livermore, they each contribute to the scientific understanding of nuclear fusion and plasma.
For stressed-out grad students, mindfulness makes big difference
While recent studies and polls indicate the nation is in the midst of a mental health crisis, the situation in academia is even more grim: Within the high-stress, high-pressure, often socially isolated world of advanced education, graduate students experience depression and anxiety at six times the rate of the general population.
Normalizing mindfulness practices within the graduate student experience may be the answer, according to a three-year study conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. Their results showed that regular, sustained mindfulness activities can play an important role in improving engineering graduate student emotional well-being.
From isotopes to internships, UW-Madison partnership energizes growing Wisconsin company
In late 2019, staff at Beloit, Wisconsin-based company NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes opened a package filled with radioactive materials. The delivery sparked an ongoing research collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison that’s accelerating the company’s emergence into an increasingly important healthcare market.