New nuclear engineering faculty to investigate materials through computation

12/8/2020

By Gabrielle Stewart

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Miaomiao “Mia” Jin will join the Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering faculty as an assistant professor on Jan. 1, 2021.

Jin comes to Penn State from Idaho National Laboratory (INL), where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher focusing on nuclear materials. At INL, she was involved in multiple projects, including examining radiation damage behavior and thermal transport in mixed oxide nuclear fuels and formation of gas bubble lattices in metals.

“I joined this field because I believe nuclear energy is the future,” Jin said. “But if we want to keep moving forward, we need to understand materials behavior and develop advanced reactor materials.”

Her current research interests lie at the intersection of computation and materials. With a background in multi-scale modeling and machine learning, she investigates radiation damage in nuclear materials, using multiple computational techniques to examine the radiation process, defects and damage reduction mechanisms. She also aims to integrate modern artificial intelligence algorithms to complement conventional modeling tools for nuclear materials applications.

At Penn State, Jin said she hopes to design radiation-resistant materials and develop efficient and accurate computational tools for describing and predicting the behavior of materials in extreme environments.

“I’d like to assemble a strong research team on the leading edge of nuclear materials,” Jin said. “Ultimately, I hope to contribute to the international recognition of Penn State nuclear engineering modeling and simulation efforts.”

Jin received her bachelor of engineering in nuclear engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2013 before earning her doctorate in nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2019.

“Mia will bring atomistic modeling to the understanding of advanced nuclear materials — a special capability missing in nuclear engineering at Penn State,” said Jean Paul Allain, head of the Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering. “She will be able to closely collaborate with several faculty who work in experimental nuclear materials, and her expertise will help us innovate in the convergence of nuclear, advanced computing and materials science.”

 

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Megan Lakatos

mkl5024@psu.edu

Headshot of a woman

Miaomiao Jin will join the Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering faculty on Jan. 1, 2021. IMAGE: PROVIDED BY MIAOMIAO JIN