Dr. BARBARA SZPUNAR, P. Eng.

email: B.Szpunar@usask.ca
tel.: work: 306-966-6462

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   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, 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 (Physics and Engineering Physics) with my husband with whom I collaborates on materials for clean energy. 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.