Bio

Grace Long graduated from Texas A&M University in Summer 2026 with a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering. Her doctoral research was conducted under the direction of Dr. Sunil Chirayath, and she was a Nuclear Nonproliferation International Safeguards (NNIS) fellow. As a graduate research assistant with NSSPI and Los Alamos National Laboratory, Long focused on international nuclear safeguards and the development of nondestructive assay methods for used nuclear fuel.

Her dissertation research centered on the Advanced Experimental Fuel Counter (AEFC), an active neutron coincidence counting system designed to quantify residual fissile material in used research reactor fuel. Long developed and evaluated new analytical methods that reduce reliance on facility-specific calibration standards, helping expand the potential deployment of the AEFC to facilities where well-characterized fuel assemblies are not available. Her work advances practical safeguards approaches for verifying fissile material in used fuel and supports broader application of neutron measurement systems for nuclear material accountancy.

Long earned her B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2021. Following completion of her Ph.D., she joined Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Safeguards Science and Technology Group, where her work continues to focus on the development and deployment of neutron measurement systems for nuclear material accountancy of used fuel elements.