Shikha Prasad

Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station

Shikha Prasad

Shikha_Prasad_profile_picture

NSSPI Faculty Fellow
Assistant Professor, Nuclear Engineering

Phone: 979.458.8162
Office: AIEN M406D
Other Webpage

Short Bio:

Dr. Shikha Prasad is a NSSPI faculty fellow. Having recently joined the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University, Dr. Prasad is establishing a laboratory for neutron measurements there. She received a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences and a graduate certificate in Science Technology and Public Policy from the Ford School of Public Policy, both at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2012. She also received an M.S.E degree in 2007, and a B.S.E. in 2006 from the Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Prior to TAMU, Dr. Prasad worked at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Program of Nuclear Engineering and Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur) where she joined in 2014. Before joining IIT-Kanpur, Dr. Prasad worked on nonproliferation assessment and technical analysis of small modular reactors at the Carnegie Mellon University. She also worked in the industry as a Principal Engineer at ERIN Engineering and Research Inc. on probabilistic risk and safety analysis of operating nuclear plants. She has worked on shorter term projects such as the Very High Temperature Reactors fission product release in accident scenarios at General Atomics, dose calculations and new plant designs at Hitachi-GE Japan, reactor core calculations at Bhabha Atomic Research Center India, and activation analysis at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Dr. Prasad is an active member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS). She is the recipient of the 2017 ANS Young Member Excellence Award. She has served as the academic adviser for the student chapters of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management and the Indian Nuclear Society at IIT-Kanpur. Dr. Prasad has served as the Chair of the ANS Local Sections Committee 2016-2017, and the elected Secretary of the ANS Nuclear Nonproliferation Technical Group 2013-2014.

NSSPI Publications:

  1. B. Wellons, R. Kumaran, S. Lee, S. Prasad, "Development of a signal processing software for scintillation detectors and implementation on an FPGA for fast sensing", Nuclear Technology, Published online: 16 Sep 2022.

  2. P. Maedgen, B. Wellons, S. Prasad, and J. Tao, "Automating pulse shape discrimination in organic scintillation detectors by understanding underlying data structure", Nuclear Technology (2022).

  3. W.E. Ang, S. Prasad, and S.S. Chirayath, "Antineutrino detection for temporal monitoring of fuel burnup in a large nuclear reactor", Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods in Physics Research A, 1028 (2022).

  4. S.S. Chirayath, C.M. Marianno, K.H. Ragusa, S.A. Dewji, S. Prasad, O.E. Acuna, "The Center For Nuclear Security Science And Policy Initiatives (NSSPI) At Texas A & M University: Fifteen Years Of Excellence In Education, Research, And Workforce Development", INMM and ESARDA Joint Annual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, August 23 - September 1, 2021.

  5. R. Kumaran, B. Wellons, and S. Prasad, "High speed computation using an FPGA with neutron-gamma scintillation detectors", Transactions of the American Nuclear Society 125 (2021) 292-295. doi: doi.org/10.13182/T125-36646.

  6. W. Ang, S. Prasad, and R. Mahapatra, "Coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scatter response of semiconductor detectors to nuclear reactor antineutrinos", Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 1004 (2021).

  7. W.E. Ang, S. Prasad, and R. Mahapatra, "Reactor antineutrino response using low threshold coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scatter-based detectors", IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium & Plasma Sciences Society Conference, 31 October - 7 November 2020. Online.

  8. J. Norris and S. Prasad, "Importance of self-shielding in mass measurements using γ -ray spectroscopy", Pramana - Journal of Physics, 94, 109 (2020).

  9. S. Singh S. Prasad, "Geometry Independent Mass Determination using Gamma-Ray Measurements", 60th Annual Meeting of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), Palm Desert, California, 14-18 July 2019.

  10. I. Halvic and S. Prasad, "Genetic Algorithm for Spectrum Reconstruction of Neutron Sources", 60th Annual Meeting of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), Palm Desert, California, 14-18 July 2019.

  11. S. Woo, S. Prasad, S. Chirayath, "Investigation of Void Formations Using Neutron Measurements in Filler Materials for Dual-Purpose Canisters", Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, 120 (2019).