TAMU Nuclear Engineering

It has been a great first week here with high school students learning about nuclear engineering! The students are on campus for the SPARK! Texas A&M Summer Symposium, part of SPARK! PK-12 Engineering Education Outreach, which offers education programming to students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

This week, students have learned about, both through lectures and hands-on activities, about radiation detection, reactor operation, and artificial intelligence in nuclear engineering. Then, they toured the reactor at the Nuclear Engineering Science Center and participated in more experiments there.

We're looking forward to another great week next week!

Nuclear engineering graduate student Zaid Abulawi is looking for ways to harness artificial intelligence to support next-generation energy systems that are growing in complexity. Zaid is a Ph.D. candidate under the supervision of nuclear engineering professor Dr. Yang Liu, as well as a TAMIDS Graduate Research Fellow at the Generative AI for Science and Engineering (GAISE) Lab.

For this research, Texas A&M Energy Institute has selected Zaid Abulawi as one of the 2026-2027 Texas A&M Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows. Congratulations!

Read more about the Fellowship and Zaid's research: https://energy.tamu.edu/news_item/announcing-the-2026-2027-texas-am-chevron-energy-graduate-fellows/

Gaining real-world experience makes all the difference. ⚛️

TAMU Nuclear Engineering student Daniel Nelson spent his fall interning with Aalo Atomics, working hands-on with next-generation small modular reactor technology. Internships like these allow students to bridge the gap between classroom learning and professional practice while preparing for impactful careers in energy and innovation.

👉 Hear his experience: tx.ag/AaloAtomicsInternship

🎉 Congratulations to our students who received American Nuclear Society scholarships for this upcoming academic year! 👍

🔵 Jack F. Jameson: ANS Undergraduate Scholarship
🔵 Augustine Wilson: ANS Undergraduate Scholarship
🔵 Caleb M. Sitton: William R. & Mila Kimel Nuclear Engineering Scholarship
🔵 Karol Luis A. Dalumpines: John R. Lamarsh Memorial Scholarship
🔵 Mariana Sorroza Aguilar: ANS Graduate Scholarship

See the full list here: https://www.ans.org/scholarships/recipients/

The Texas A&M University System today recognized a major milestone in advanced nuclear energy development as Last Energy announced U.S. Department of Energy approval of the Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for its PWR-5 pilot reactor project at the RELLIS Campus.

The approval marks an important step toward operation of the microreactor demonstration project now under construction at RELLIS, where the Texas A&M System is building one of the nation’s leading hubs for next-generation energy research, testing and workforce development.

What are our Atomic Aggies up to this summer? Let us know in the comments below!

Calling all Aggie nuclear engineering alumni! You're invited to an alumni event in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on June 25.

Dr. Ayman Hawari, our new Department Head, will be in town and looks forward to meeting you! Join us to reconnect with fellow Aggies, meet department leadership, and hear a brief update on the State of the Department. Whether you graduated recently or years ago, we hope you’ll join us.

Please register here by June 15: https://tamu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dbVq5cCEtXGAmeG

On Tuesday, we visited the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant near Glen Rose, where Vistra really rolled out the red carpet to welcome us. We toured the nuclear power plant and saw the future site for an Amazon data center. That afternoon, we also met with several Texas A&M alumni who work at the nuclear power plant.

The history between Texas and the Czech community runs deep, from communities of immigrants established in the state’s early days to modern collaborations between Czech institutions and Texas universities. Doctoral student and researcher Jan Ullmann continued this tradition by spending the past semester working alongside Texas A&M University nuclear engineering faculty and students.

Read more: tx.ag/xgbo5XH

Hundreds of nuclear engineering students from across the country came to Texas A&M University in April for the American Nuclear Society Student Conference to discuss the latest science, present their research to peers, tour facilities and network with industry professionals.

This year's student conference broke records for ANS, with over 900 nuclear engineering students and industry professionals gathering in College Station.

Read more: tx.ag/ANSStudentConference