Jeremy Osborn won the J.D. Williams Student Paper Award at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) took place from July 22-26 in Baltimore, Maryland. Osborn is a Ph.D. student in the department of nuclear engineering working with the Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives (NSSPI) Director Dr. Sunil Chirayath. The award for the best student paper at the meeting is based on the student’s written paper and oral presentation and includes a $1000 prize.
“I am honored by the support and recognition from the INMM community,” said Osborn. “It represents the success of the Texas A&M Nuclear Forensics Group.”
Osborn’s paper, titled “Experimental Validation of a Nuclear Forensics Methodology for Source Reactor-Type Discrimination of Chemically Separated Plutonium,” presents the results of his dissertation work to develop new methods to determine the reactor origins of weapons-grade plutonium. This research is part of a seven-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office under an Academic Research Initiative (DNDO-ARI) grant, which is led by Dr. Chirayath in conjunction with Dr. Charles M. Folden, III of the Cyclotron Institute.
“I believe the greatest strength of the project is the fusion of computational simulations, research reactor irradiations, radiochemistry laboratory work, and experimental measurements,” Osborn explained.
Osborn successfully defended his dissertation this summer and will be graduating in December. He recently joined NSSPI as a postdoctoral research associate.
Dr. Chirayath was also awarded an INMM Senior Membership Appointment at the meeting.
Osborn was one of three NSSPI students to present at the meeting; Yanuar Setiawan and Athena Sagadevan also had papers there. Texas A&M nuclear engineering undergraduate student Mario Mendoza attended the meeting on behalf of the Texas A&M INMM Student Chapter as the incoming president. NSSPI Assistant Research Engineer Dr. Evans Kitcher presented a fifth paper, and Dr. Chirayath also co-chaired a session on “Education & Training: Empowering the Workforce.”