Team

Samah Balouza

PhD student

Works on: Real-time 3-D time-dependent neutron kinetics

Samah received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Nuclear and Radiation Engineering from Alexandria University (Egypt) and has worked on several international research projects, including high-energy physics research at CERN in Geneva. Her current research focuses on the development of reactor kinetics using the fission matrix approach for application to advanced reactor digital twins.

Papers: Comparing Fission Matrix Approaches using a JSI TRIGA Mark-II Reactor Model (ANS, Nov 2026)

Vittoria Bellani

Visiting student, Politecnico di Milano

Works on: Multi-physics modeling of fission-product precipitates in UO₂ fuel

Vittoria is an M.Sc. student in Materials and Nanotechnology Engineering at Politecnico di Milano and a visiting researcher at Colorado School of Mines. Her research focuses on computational nuclear fuel modeling, with particular emphasis on the link between reactor neutronics and the microstructural evolution of irradiated UO₂ fuel. Her current work investigates the formation and evolution of metallic fission-product precipitates and their dependence on local irradiation conditions.

Jake LaFore

Undergraduate researcher

Works on: Validating GRACE: in-core flux from ex-core detectors

Award: Best speaker award at the Undergraduate Physics Conference of Colorado 2026 for his talk “Computational Analyses for Validation of a Machine Learning Approach to Neutron Flux Reconstruction in Next-Generation Nuclear Reactors”.

Jake is an engineering physics major who has wanted to get involved in nuclear engineering since the age of 16. His love of math-heavy fields and his belief that nuclear science and engineering have the ability to make energy cheaper and more abundant drive his passion for the subject. When he finishes his undergraduate degree, Jake hopes to pursue a PhD in nuclear engineering.

Papers: Evaluation of the Effect of Control Rod Positioning on One-Group Effective Nuclear Data for Ex-Core Flux Reconstruction in the JSI TRIGA Mark-II Reactor (ANS, Nov 2026)

Thomas McCoy

Undergraduate researcher

Works on: Open-source research reactor design for proliferation resistance

Thomas is a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate (Nuclear Energy track, B.S. expected Dec 2027) developing the OpenMC specification and model of the IAEA-TECDOC-643 plate-type core, the benchmark for the group's open-source OpenMC/ADDER fuel management work. In Summer 2026, he worked on his undergraduate research project as a Research Aide at Argonne National Laboratory.

Daris Paine

Undergraduate researcher

Works on: ML/AI-enabled simulators and digital twins

Daris is a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at the Colorado School of Mines (B.S. expected May 2027) conducting research in nuclear energy and reactor physics. For the past year, he has worked on developing machine-learning methods to accelerate OpenMC reactor simulations for applications in advanced reactor modeling and control. He previously worked as an industrial electrician and spent two summers with Devon Energy improving compressor-station efficiency and reducing emissions. His research interests include nuclear energy, computational reactor physics, and the application of machine learning to advanced energy systems.

Papers: Neural Network-Enabled Thermal Feedback Modeling in the Fission Matrix Method (ANS, Jun 2026)