Eda Aydogan, Ph.D. student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, received the 2015 Distinguished Student Award from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). She is currently a graduate student intern at LANL and will pursue her Ph.D. research at LANL until the end of summer 2016.
Aydogan is completing her doctoral degree under the supervision of Dr. Lin Shao, associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and affiliated faculty member in materials science and engineering.
“I am very happy to receive this award as a Texas A&M student,” Aydogan said. “I have been fortunate to get an opportunity to participate in such exciting materials research at both Texas A&M University and Los Alamos National Laboratory.”
At LANL, Aydogan is working on the development of radiation tolerant fuel cladding materials for next generation fast reactors under the supervision of Dr. Osman Anderoglu and Dr. Stuart Maloy of the Materials Science in Radiation and Dynamics (MST-8) group. Her research focuses on the effect of tube processing methods on the microstructure and mechanical properties of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steels and their irradiation responses. Aydogan is a part of a large effort that includes Los Alamos National Laboratory, Texas A&M, the University of California, Santa Barbara, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Case Western Reserve University that is working on developing ODS cladding tubes and understanding the effect of microstructure on their irradiation responses.
In addition to this award, Aydogan also won “The Best Poster Award” at 2015 TMS (The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society) meeting. She has published five journal papers, with more currently under review.
Her work shows the promise to use composition engineering and nanostructures to improve alloy’s self-repair capabilities in reactors.
“Due to very unique challenges in nuclear engineering, materials designs for harsh reactor environments have reached nanometer scales and materials research is multi-disciplinary in its nature,” Shao said. “Eda has very solid backgrounds in materials science, nuclear engineering and physics.
“She is a great team player but never loses the excellence as an individual researcher. She works very hard and greatly impresses everyone with her passion and love for materials research.”