Chair
Maria Okuniewski
Purdue University

Maria Okuniewski is an associate professor in the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University, where she also holds a courtesy appointment with the School of Nuclear Engineering. Previous to joining Purdue in 2016, she spent approximately eight years at Idaho National Laboratory as a research and development scientist and engineer, where she also served as a Technical Lead for NSUF. She has conducted research on transmutation fuels, high-performance research and test reactor fuels, structural materials, and waste storage materials for over twenty years. Okuniewski’s research focuses on the nexus of microstructural evolution, processing, mechanical properties, and irradiation performance to improve upon next generation fuels and materials, including minimizing proliferation.

Vice Chair
Stephen Taller
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Stephen Taller is a research and development associate staff member and Alvin M. Weinberg fellow in the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Prior to joining ORNL, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and completed a PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan. He has extensive experience in designing, conducting and analyzing experiments to study radiation damage effects in neutron irradiated and ion irradiated structural and core materials, primarily using transmission electron microscopy, at multiple NSUF partner facilities.  Taller’s research focuses on methods to accelerate and optimize the nuclear materials development cycle through microstructural characterization of metals and alloys, analysis of ion irradiation as a supplement or surrogate for neutron irradiation and exploration of advanced manufacturing methods for nuclear technology.

Secretary
Ramprashad Prabhakaran
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Ramprashad Prabhakaran is a Materials Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He has been actively involved in the nuclear fuels, structural, cladding and accelerator materials research and development for over 20 years and has worked at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Idaho National Laboratory before joining PNNL. He has extensive experience in utilizing hotcells, performing corrosion studies, mechanical and microstructural characterizations of nuclear materials and welded/processed alloys, evaluating irradiation effects, and understanding structure-property-processing-dose relationships. He is the PI, Co-PI, and task lead for several USDOE (NE, NNSA and Office of Science) projects supporting NSUF, AMMT, AFC, IMARC, RERTR/M3, RaDIATE, Fusion and Tritium Technology programs. He is the past chair of TMS Nuclear Materials, Corrosion and Environmental Effects, and Young Professionals Committees.

Student Representative
Malachi Nelson
Idaho National Laboratory

Malachi Nelson is an Idaho National Laboratory graduate fellow and final year PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. His research involves nuclear structural materials including mechanical properties and microstructure characterization of zircaloy cladding. Malachi investigates anisotropic viscoplastic properties of cladding in reactor conditions such as pellet-cladding mechanical interactions to improve cladding resilience to reactor power ramping and load following. Outside of work, Malachi is active in energy policy and STEM advocacy and enjoys snowboarding and backpacking.