At the heart of any research group is the people involved. It is the bright and motivated students who make quality research possible in the PyRO lab.
Currently, there are 1 post-doctoral researcher, 8 graduate students (8 PhD) and 10 undergraduates actively contributing to the research being performed in the PyRO lab.
Post-Doctoral Appointee:
Carlos Mejia - Buffered reference electrode development for molten salts, surrogate development for electrorefining in NaCl-KCl, mentoring students in their projects, managing day-to-day operations in the lab, and supporting proposal development
Graduate Students:
Graduate students lead major, multi-year, multi-faceted projects with the laboratory which involve various chemical techniques, processes, and undergraduate students
Aaron Essilfie - Electrochemical oxygen sensor for molten halide salts
Bryant Johnson - High-throughput electrorefining in molten salts (Electrochemistry)
George Ankrah - High-throughput electrorefining in molten salts (Metallography)
Hunter Manner - Miniaturizing electrorefining for specialized samples
J. Marvin Torrie - Two-step chloride volatility separation and chemical characterization (e.g., ICP-MS) of uranium chlorides
Cameron Vann - Electrolysis of chlorine from molten salts for in progress generation/electrochemical sensors and methods development
Tyler Williams - Development of thin cell electrochemical sensor for molten salts (chloride salts)
Edward Mercado - Development of thin cell electrochemical sensor for molten salts (fluoride salts)
Undergraduate Students:
In addition to supporting graduate students in their projects, undergraduate students in our group independently lead small, supplementary research projects which support the major research projects.
Addison Omdahl - Investigation of alternative approaches, including 3D printing, to make lids or other complex lab parts
Ander Fuller - Machine learning to model and improve molten salt electrorefining systems
Ashley Camp - Electrode Polishing, Cleaning, and Charaterization Methods
Christopher Gibby - Sensor logging and display (glovebox, thermocouples, etc.)
Jarod Varga - Rotating Hemispherical Electrode for Molten Salts and Corrosion Studies
Justin Wright - Chemical Analysis of Uranium after Chlorination with Chlorine Gas
Makayla Larsen - Plutonium Electrochemistry Review Paper
Sara Warner - Sampling of Electrorefining Cells
Shelssie Klvacek - Wetting effects on W electrode and accurate area measurement
Thomas Smith - Electrode lead shielding
Past Graduate Students - Projects (Employer after leaving the PyRO lab)
Michael Stoddard - Advanced voltammetry model for uranium chloride in molten LiCl-KCl (Department of Energy)
Greg Chipman - AC superimposed DC electrorefining (Savannah River National Laboratory)
Mark Schvaneveldt - In-situ chlorine generation (Argonne National Laboratory)
Ranon Fuller - Rotating electrode and hydrodynamic correlations in molten salts (Idaho National Laboratory)