Ranked 18th by the US News & World Report, VCU’s nuclear engineering programme is set to develop the future generation of nuclear scientists.
Dr Phongikaroon, Engineering Foundation Professor and Director of Nuclear Engineering Programmes at VCU, received $1.5m from the U.S. Department of Energy – Integrated Research Project to develop the research, education, and training centre of excellence on nuclear fuel cycle and waste management towards advanced reactor technology.
In addition, the VCU nuclear engineering programme received $5m from the DOE-Isotope Production Programme to develop an MSI Radioisotope Production Centre. Dr Phongikaroon is co-PI of this five-year project.
A unique training programme
To enhance diversity, inclusion, and innovation, the research team is fully integrated with historically black colleges and universities (Virginia Union University and Virginia State University), creating a one-of-kind education and research training programme that never existed in the state of Virginia.
Research activities will be conducted under five topic areas: materials science and chemistry, neutron transport, heat transfer and system, nuclear material quantification, and engineering economics and finances.
A full suite of nuclear engineering degrees
VCU is currently the only university in Virginia that offers a full suite of graduate and undergraduate degrees in nuclear engineering, including an ABET accredited BS in Mechanical Engineering with a separately ABET accredited major concentration in nuclear engineering as well as MS and PhD degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering.
The VCU nuclear engineering graduate programme is ranked 18th by the US News & World Report.
All nuclear facility members in the research team have taught more than 2,000 students across more than 30 different didactic courses in mechanical and nuclear science, engineering, and technology at VCU.
They have advised more than 20 PhD students and 50 MS students. They mentored more than ten postdoctoral fellows and 100 undergraduate students at VCU and 30 high school students.
To date, the team has raised more than $10m including grants from federal agencies like DOE, NSF, NNSA, and federal labs such as Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
