Los Alamos National LaboratoryFUTURE: Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes
An Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences
FUTURE Alumni
Alumni of the FUTURE program have continued to further the work in their fields
TS Byun |
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TS Byun, who has earned degrees from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science, studied radiation effects on the deformation and cracking behavior of reactor materials and helped to develop radiation-resistant high temperature materials. He has published over 100 papers cited more than 25 times on average. As a previous thrust leader in FUTURE, he led the studies on the mass transport of alloying elements and corrosion species in irradiated and corroded microstructures using advanced characterization tools. He doesn’t mind golfing on a freezing winter day, and though he has never reached a single digit handicap after well over a decade, he is lucky enough to have once shot a hole-in-one. |
Jacob Cooper |
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Jacob Cooper was a PhD student at North Carolina State University, advised by Dr. Djamel Kaoumi. Jacob previously worked on point defects thrust of FUTURE to study the accumulation of point defects in materials under irradiation. In his free time, he enjoys golf and traveling. |
Junsoo Han |
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Dr. Junsoo Han is a graduate of Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris (ENSCP), France. He has been investigating the microstructural effect on the electrochemistry of a multi-phase alloy system as a member of the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) project. His research has focused on the dealloying and elemental dissolution mechanism by using the atomic emission spectroelectrochemistry (AESEC) technique. He has developed the novel combination of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy with AESEC (EIS-AESEC) and the gravimetric hydrogen measurement with AESEC. For the FUTURE project, he investigated the effect of aqueous solution, room temperature ionic liquids and the molten salts on the thermally formed oxide layer by using electrochemical techniques and surface characterization. He loves traveling, reading and learning languages. |
Timothy Lach |
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Timothy G. Lach, a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The Ohio State University, used advanced characterization techniques like aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) to study the microstructural evolution of structural and radiological materials subjected to extreme environments. During his time as an early career scientist as part of the FUTURE-EFRC, he characterized the chemical and structural evolution of materials in coupled corrosive and radiation environments using STEM and isotope-sensitive APT. In his spare time, Tim enjoys cheering on his Buckeyes and playing park league softball, basketball, and ultimate disc. |
Martin Owusu-Mensah |
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Martin Owusu-Mensah was previously a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Nuclear Engineering department of North Carolina State University under the guidance of Dr. Djamel Kaoumi. Martin holds a PhD in Nuclear Energy from the University of Paris-Saclay, France, where he worked on Understanding the first formation stages of Y,Ti oxides in Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) steels using ion implantation. Martin also holds a Master’s degree certificate from the same university in the field of Nuclear Energy specializing in Nuclear Power Plant Design. In addition, Martin also holds Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology, Ghana. Prior to his graduate studies, Martin worked for a year as a teaching and research assistant and has undertaken many different internships at different times. Martin previously worked on radiation damage in metal/oxide interfaces in the realm of this EFRC. |
Nathan Velez |
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Nathan Velez is a USAF veteran and received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley where he studied mechanical properties of polymeric materials. Using the technique he developed for testing freestanding polymer thin films, Nathan discovered a process that greatly enhances the ductility in typically brittle polymer glasses, such as polystyrene and polymethylmethacrylate. Outside of the lab, Nathan is an avid skydiver, guitarist, chess player, and whiskey aficionado. |
Marlene Wartenberg |
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Marlene Wartenberg studied the corrosive behavior of oxide films as affected by molten salt and ionic liquid environments under Dr. John Scully. In her free time, she studies languages and draws digitally. |
Yang Yang |
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Dr. Yang was formerly a postdoc at National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received his PhD degree from the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. His research interests include advanced electron microscopy characterization of materials degradation under extreme environments, as well as developing advanced computation tools for understanding interfacial dynamics during ion radiation in solids. He is one of the main developers of IM3D, a full-3D Monte Carlo (MC) simulation tool for ion radiation in matter. Yang's previous work for the EFRC included the application 4D-STEM technique to study point defects evolution in materials after molten salt corrosion. He enjoys photography and traveling in his spare time. |
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