Service

      Many faculty treat service as an obligation to be avoided.  As junior faculty we are often told to focus on research and teaching – that service is somehow less important.  I disagree with this view.  Service should be just as forward-looking and strategic as research and teaching, if not more so.  Service is a great way to increase visibility and make an impact on the future of the discipline, university, and department.  It is a way to build strong professional relationships and develop partnerships.  It is a vehicle for sharing knowledge and creating ideas.

      Since arriving at Missouri S&T I have worked to target my service activities to those I believe will have an impact.  I have requested committee assignments that put me in a position to have a positive impact on the future of my department.  Professionally, I have actively sought out reviewing assignments and been an active participant in highly visible professional conferences.  These assignments will be detailed in the next few sections.

Departmental and Institutional Service                                                                 

      As stated above, my departmental and institutional service has been focused on areas that will allow me to have a positive impact on the future.  Some of this service includes things as basic as meeting with prospective students or developing courses.  In addition I have initiated some activities that do not fall under a committee – such as a review of the number of students, number of faculty, and key productivity measures for high-ranking Nuclear Engineering programs.  The hope is that this process will help us identify areas that we can address to improve our impact and visibility.  I make sure that I am available to help other committees when necessary and strive to be involved in departmental concerns and development.  Much of this work is integrated with my every-day teaching and research activities, however I would like to take this opportunity to address a few key areas:

Associate Chair for Academic Affairs

      I currently serve as the Associate Chair for Academic Affairs for the Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Department.  In this position, I work closely with the staff advisor for our undergraduate students and am responsible for our ABET and HLC preparedness: I keep records of department performance on the metrics we use to determine whether we meet student outcome requirements, put together yearly reports on the results, wrote the previous Self-Study Report for Nuclear Engineering, and coordinate the collection of materials for the site visits.  This process can be challenging at times.  Working to find a way forward for students who have struggled during their first semesters or students who came to Missouri S&T without the necessary background in mathematics can be both trying and time consuming.  But it is also very rewarding.  Seeing those students get back on track and watching them succeed – and knowing that I was a part of that – is very gratifying.  As part of this effort I completely re-designed our senior exit surveyafter reviewing the exit surveys of various other departments within the university and nuclear engineering programs at other universities.  The new survey gives us a much better idea what our students did and did not like about their experience and provides additional data regarding key ABET metrics.  This assignment also gives me the ability to suggest and argue for changes that I think arenecessaryto keep our program competitive in the national and global market. 

      As part of this effort I was asked to work with Educational Technology to create a short introductory video.  After discussing their intent with the Freshmen Engineering Program and meeting with EdTech I prepared a script and worked with them to record the video, which they then edited.  I also suggested that Educational Technology get in touch with several current and former students for short interviews.  I suggested a list of possible students and interview questions.  The result was a short video of students giving their perspective on the Nuclear Engineering Program – a perspective that incoming Freshmen should find very valuable.  The videos were so successful that the Program Chair for Nuclear Engineering is adding them to the program web page.

      I also have taken the lead on our department’s recruiting and retention efforts.  As part of this effort I work with the Admissions office to coordinate and develop recruiting events.  These include visits to the Missouri S&T Reactor, trips to speak with local high school students, participation in a variety of campus events, and so on.  I am also developing new retention programs to help first-time college students adapt to the University environment, make connections with other students, and succeed in their first-year courses.  As part of these efforts I am also leading the development of our department’s social media presence.  This includes developing content for our Facebook and Twitter feeds to announce upcoming events and distribute important news.  I am also establishing Instagram and TikTok accounts for the department that will allow us to reach new audiences with information about nuclear science and engineering, and updates regarding department activities.                                                                 

Department Committees

      I have also been serving on a number of key department/program committees.  The list of these committees can be found in Appendix A.  Again, the selection of these committees reflects my conviction that service should be forward-looking and strategic. 

      I requested to be assigned to the search committee for the Mining and Nuclear Engineering Department Chair in 2017.  I also requested assignment to the search for the Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Department Chair in 2021.  I viewed these as key opportunities to have a strong voice in the selection of the individual who will lead our department for the foreseeable future.  It was a valuable learning experience.  I was able to see first-hand many key university functions and meet a number of interesting people. 

      In the next several years I plan to continue this strategic selection of service activities in order to continue to have an impact on the Nuclear Engineering program, our department, and the university.

Missouri S&T

  • Student Conduct Committee 2023 – Present
  • Nuclear Engineering Faculty Search Committee 2023 – Present
  • Equity Resolution Hearing Panelist 2021 – Present
  • Engagement and Outreach Committee 2020 – Present
  • Women in Nuclear Advisor 2019 – Present
  • Discipline Specific Curriculum Committee 2019 – Present
  • Nuclear Science Design Team Advisor 2015 – Present
  • Doshi Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering search committee 2021
  • CERTI Advisory Committee 2016

Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

  • Associate Chair – Academics 2017 – Present
  • Nuclear Engineering NRC Scholarship Committee 2014 – Present
  • Faculty Search Committee 2023
  • Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Chair Search Committee 2020 – 2022
  • Mining and Nuclear Engineering Chair Search Committee 2015 – 2016

Professional Societies and Journals                                                              

      Service in professional societies and journals is one of the most effective ways to increase personal and institutional visibility.  Professional organizations and conferences provide the opportunity to present your work, receive feedback from other experts, share knowledge, and build collaborations and partnerships.

      I am an active reviewer for 21 professional journals related to nuclear engineering and multiphase flow.  Over the last two years I have completed 25 reviews for those journals.  This has given me the chance to review current researchin my field, get ideas for research topics, and identify possible collaborators.  In addition to this, it has allowed me to establish myself in an expert in the field with valuable viewpoints. 

            I have also been active in professional conferences.  Over the last few years I have served as a reviewer for six conferences, reviewing 12 manuscripts.  I attended two of those conferences and served as a session chair during NURETH 16, one of the most popular conferences on nuclear reactor thermal hydraulics in the world, with representatives from Japan, China, India, South Africa, and many European nations.  In the future, I plan to increase my activity within the Thermal Hydraulics Division of the American Nuclear Society.

  • Editorial Board
    • Experimental and Computational Multiphase Flow
  • Guest Editor
    • Frontiers in Energy Research: Advancements in Nuclear and Irradiation Experiments
    • Progress in Nuclear Energy: Tests for Reactor Licensing
    • Energies: Frontiers in Thermal Energy Storage and Heat Exchange
  • Reviewer
    • Annals of Nuclear Energy, Applied Thermal Engineering, ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering, Chemical Engineering Science, Energies, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, Fluids, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, International Journal of Thermal Science, Journal of Energy Research, Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, Nuclear Engineering and Design, Nuclear Science and Engineering, Sensors, The Open Chemical Engineering Journal, Processes, Progress in Nuclear Energy, 18th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-18), 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 27), 26th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 26), 17th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-17), 25th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 25), 11th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-11), 2016 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP-16), 16th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-16)

Service to the Community

      Community service is an often-neglected component to professional service, but it is also important due to its uniqueness.  Community service allows us to work with other members of the community – people we would not generally meet during our professional work.  It allows us to spread the discussion of our research and educate people who are not experts in our field and – truthfully – may not be technical professionals at all.  It allows faculty to increase their visibility in the community and build up the reputation of the university and the departments, and it allows faculty to pursue interests outside of their research and teaching.

      For my part, I have long had an interest in theater.  This is partly why I often view teaching as performance art.  I have volunteered to serve community theaters in a technical capacity, as master electrician and lighting designer, for a number of years prior to moving to Rolla.  During that time I set up lighting for five major musicals and at least a dozen more minor shows.  For one of those musicals and three of the minor shows I was also the lighting designer, planning how each scene of the show would be lit to produce the desired emotional and dramatic effect for the audience.  I found both experiences to be extremely rewarding. I later served as a lighting designer and technician for several years at Gear City Church in Rolla.

      I have also had the opportunity to serve as a volunteer coordinator for HorrorHound Weekend.  HorrorHound Weekend is a convention held twice each year, in Indianapolis, IN and Cincinnati, OH, to celebrate thriller and horror movies.  Actors from various films and franchises are invited, along with special-effects artists, directors, and other professionals.  People from all walks of life attend to meet celebrities and have fun.  Part of the show my responsibility was to schedule volunteers at the various duty stations and make sure they got there, then make sure that they had the resources they needed to do their jobs.  I also acted as security for various events during the convention.  The experience was a lot of fun for me.

Over the last few years, as my children have begun to grow up, I have also had the opportunity to volunteer with the Cub Scouts and Scouting BSA as a den leader and adult volunteer. In a lot of ways, this type of activity is an extension of my career. Developing activities and lesson plans and teaching young men and women the skills they will need to be good citizens has been a very rewarding experience. And as an Eagle Scout, watching my children grow into the organization that gave me so many good memories in my youth has been very rewarding.

      Through these admittedly unique activities, I was able to learn a great deal about performance and met many interesting people.  And of course, when they found out that I was a nuclear engineer, I had the opportunity to discuss my field, my research and the university with those people.