Dr. BARBARA SZPUNAR, P. Eng.
emails: B.Szpunar@usask.ca
Barbarausask@gmail.com
Recent
research highlights:
·
First principles, predictive simulations
of properties of accident tolerant and recycled nuclear fuels
·
Physical & chemical properties
of nuclear materials and radiation damage
·
Semi-empirical simulations of
physical & chemical properties of materials
·
Multidisciplinary studies of
reactor safety
·
Accidents in nuclear reactors:
o Thermal
condctivity
o Oxidation
o Diffusion
and fission product transport
·
Artificial transmutation
o Medical
isotopes production
o Nuclear
waste treatment
Career Objective: To apply my multidisciplinary experience in computer
simulations in studies of nuclear and advanced materials. Teaching of multidisciplinary
courses.
Work Experience:
Canada: Senior Research Scientists,
Physics and Engineering Physics, Adjunct Prof. Mechanical Engineering, University
of Saskatchewan; Physicist, Fuel Channel and Fuel Safety Branch, Chalk River
Laboratories, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited; Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct
Associate Professor, Physics Department, Chemistry Department and Department of
Materials and Metallurgy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and
Royal Military College.
After working for over seven years at Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) where
I pursued my interest in the simulations of accidents in CANDU and Advanced
CANDU reactors (ACR) I moved to the University of Saskatchewan with my husband
with whom I collaborates on materials for clean energy and computational
nuclear engineering. The main goal of my early research has been to model the
structure and properties of complex materials. I have been involved in the
following research topics: the influence of the structural disorder on the
magnetic and elastic properties of nanocrystalls;
electronic structure of high temperature superconductors; magnetism of textured
polycrystalline industrial magnets; finite element calculations for
nondestructive testing by remote electromagnetic fields; molecular dynamics
simulations of hydrogen diffusion; Mapping Monte Carlo simulations for
microstructures and porosity during the process of solidification.
International: Visiting Scientist,
Max Planck Institut für Festkörperforschung,
Stuttgart, Germany (Electronic structure of buckyballs); Visiting Scientist,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA (Electronic
structure of Mott insulators (GW corrections)). Other Institutions I have been
working at: Chemistry Department, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA;
Physics Department, Durham University, Durham, England; School of Mathematical
and Physical Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, England; National
Laboratory, Riso, Denmark; Department of Solid State Physics, Academy of Mining
and Metallurgy, Krakow, Poland. Topics of research area were: electronic
structure calculations; theory of magnetism of the rare-earth transition metals
alloys; theory of metal hydrides; surfaces studies of transition metals;
magnetism of textured polycrystalline industrial magnets; micromagnetism;
magnetocrystalline anisotropy.
Computer Skills: Fortran (it is the fastest language for scientific
calculations), c, c++, Java, HTML, Web Page Design, MAPLE,
MATHEMATICA, MATLAB, COMSOL, extensive use of Compute Canada supercomputers (https://computecanada.ca), familiarity with SUN, SP2 and SG (system administrator)
workstations, Main Frame, Cray.
Education:
Publications: ~200 publications and over 60 AECL technical documents. My RG (Research Gate) score is 33.9 (higher
than 93% members) and my h (citation/impact) index is 23 (i10-index:
45).
Professional Affiliations: Professional Engineer of Ontario; Canadian
Nuclear Society; Women in Nuclear: I am a member of the Saskatchewan Chapter
(also covers Alberta) and also joined WIM/WIN leadership team; Co-editor of
Physics International: http://thescipub.com/pi.toc
Awards: Minister's Individual Award for research achievement.