Narrative Statement - Example 2
John Doe’s research interests are in the reactor control area: optimal, robust, and intelligent control including fuzzy logic, neural network, and reconfigurable control techniques. His work includes interdisciplinary collaboration with faculty members in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. Doe established an intelligent distributed controls research laboratory that is used to conduct real-world experimental control research at the TRIGA reactor facility. This work includes both diagnostics and advanced automatic control for power plants. Doe's research has led to the development of a new diagnostic model approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for use in the electric power generation industry. Doe’s research interests also include nuclear safety analysis and the use of computational methods in reactor physics. He uses various reactor simulation computer programs to evaluate the relative safety characteristics of pressurized and boiling water reactors during past related failures and accidents. This analysis adds to the industry's understanding of time-dependent phenomena during events. Since large-scale experimental testing of events in actual plants is very costly, code simulations become the best-estimate approach to investigate plant response and the impact of design changes.
Doe teaches the graduate reactor control
course, the capstone nuclear reactor design course, and the multiple section
undergraduate reactor physics laboratory course. He also teaches the
summer "ramp" course, which compresses two semesters of reactor
physics into an 8-week course for undergraduate co-op and incoming graduate
students. Doe has incorporated modern simulation and computer-based
control systems analysis software into the reactor control course.
Similarly, in the senior laboratory course, Doe has incorporated simulation of
reactor experiments to demonstrate the theoretical basis of the
experiments. In order to have better visualization of nuclear engineering
concepts, he developed (with support from the
Doe has been selected as a Presidential
Young Investigator. He serves as chair of the Reactor Design Committee
for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and as a member of the Executive Board of
the American Nuclear Society.