Emily Kwapis, a Ph.D. student in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Florida, has been awarded a Second Place prize in the Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Fuel and Supply Chain. Kwapis’s award is in the Open Competition in the category of Material Protection. Her award-winning research paper, “Tracking of Individual TRISO-fueled Pebbles through the Application of X-ray Imaging and Deep Metric Learning,” was published in Progress in Nuclear Energy in October 2021.

In order to be successful and retain its leadership role in nuclear technologies, the United States must foster creativity and breakthrough achievements to develop tomorrow’s nuclear solutions. The Department of Energy has long recognized that university students are an important source of cutting-edge advancements, and a key component in meeting its long-term goals. The Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards program was developed for this purpose.

The Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards program is designed to: 1) award graduate and undergraduate students for innovative nuclear-technology-relevant research publications, 2) demonstrate the Department of Energy’s commitment to higher education in nuclear-technology-relevant disciplines, and 3) support communications among university students and Department of Energy representatives.