Nuclear Program Receives Faculty Development Grant

OSU’s Nuclear Engineering Program has received a three-year, $450,000 faculty development grant from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  This funding is intended to support the research of Professor Lei (Raymond) Cao.  Ohio State will also provide matching funds of $150,000 over a three-year period.

Professor Tunc Aldemir and Assistant Professor Cao submitted their proposal in response to NRC’s Faculty Development Grants Program.  This program recognizes the need to attract and retain highly-qualified junior faculty in academic teaching careers.  Grants provide support for new faculty in the nuclear-related fields of Nuclear Engineering, Health Physics, and Radiochemistry. The award specifically targets probationary, tenure-track faculty in these academic areas during the first 6 years of their career.  Support opportunities could include developing proposals for research and initiating or continuing research projects in their areas of expertise.

This award will be used to assist Cao in integrating his innovative research into the core competitiveness of the OSU Nuclear Engineering Program in advanced instrumentation, control, and reactor safety. It will also benefit the OSU Research Reactor since the new research program to be developed will involve more utilization of the reactor to strengthen nuclear engineering research and education. The objectives of his research are to develop novel radiation detectors for meeting safeguard mission requirements for both nuclear safety and the control of nuclear materials in fuel cycles which are critical in meeting domestic and global energy needs.