Francesco Ganda
Argonne Principal Nuclear Engineer Francesco Ganda (NSE) received an award, and a piece of history, from the U.S Department of Energy.
Ganda received the Fuel Cycle Research and Development (FCR&D) Excellence Award, a keepsake displaying a piece of graphite from CP-1, the world’s first nuclear reactor. He was recognized for excellence in the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program during the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting in Orlando, Fla., in November.
Ganda, who joined Argonne in 2013, leads the multi-lab research activities in nuclear economics as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Nuclear Energy System Analysis and Integration Campaign. His research focuses on nuclear economics, reactor physics and nuclear fuel cycles.
“I am glad to be recognized for the several years of effort and dedication to the campaign activities and to nuclear research and development,” said Ganda. “I also want to recognize the importance of the exceptional leadership of the System Analysis and Integration Campaign, my institutional sponsor, and of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Division, which gave me the opportunity to pursue the research that was recognized with the award.”
The award is given by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) to honor excellence in the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program. The award is given annually to one early- to mid-career researcher for each of the five programmatic campaigns of the DOE-NE Nuclear Technology R&D (NTRD) Program.
Nominations are provided by the campaign’s national technical directors. Temitope Taiwo, manager of NSE’s Nuclear Programs Strategy and national technical director of the System Analysis and Integration Campaign, nominated Ganda. Awardees are then chosen by a director within DOE-NE. Patricia Paviet, director of the Office of Materials and Chemical Technologies at DOE-NE, chose Ganda. Ganda qualified through his work in support of the Programmatic System Analysis and Integration Campaign in nuclear economics.
At the American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting in Orlando, Ganda presented a brief summary of his past research in nuclear economics for the campaign, and then focused on the recent work on the Algorithm for the Capital Cost Estimation of Reactor Technologies code.
In addition to receiving the FCR&D award, Ganda was nominated this year to serve as the U.S. representative on the Working Party in Nuclear Economics of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and its Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris.
By Anna Marie Tomczyk