The Department of Nuclear Engineering’s Young Former Student Award was established in 2018 to recognize and honor former students’ excellence in professional leadership and their contributions to the nuclear field. This award spotlights outstanding former students that have graduated from the department within the last 10 years who have excelled in the nuclear engineering field while displaying Texas A&M’s core values of excellence, integrity, leadership, loyalty, respect, and selfless service.
Young Former Student Award 2021
The 2021 Young Former Student Award winner was Dr. Lane Carasik. Carasik is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University and the director of the FAST Research group. The award recognizes his growing expertise in the fields of computational and experimental thermal-hydraulics, his commitment to educating students, navigating highly complex and challenging situations and his dedication to giving nuclear engineering and clean energy a broader voice as an ANS Diversity and Inclusion committee member. Carasik received his doctorate degree from Texas A&M University in 2017.
Young Former Student Award 2020
The 2020 Young Former Student Award winner was Dr. Kelli Humbird. Humbird is a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and researches combining machine learning with inertial confinement fusion research. Humbird received her undergraduate, master's and doctorate degrees from Texas A&M University.
Young Former Student Award 2019
The 2019 Young Former Student Award winner was Dr. Zeyun Wu. Wu is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and directs the Computation Applied Reactor Physics Laboratory (CARPL) at VCU. Wu received his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University with a research focus on reactor physics and computational methods on neutron transport. Read more about Dr. Zeyun Wu's journey here.
Young Former Student Award 2018
The 2018 Young Former Student Award winners are Drs. Braden Goddard, Adrienne LaFleur and James Miller. Read more about their journey from Texas A&M to becoming leaders in academia and industry here.
Selection Criteria and Eligibility
Nominees must be graduates of the department who have:- Graduated within the past 10 years from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University.
- Shown excellence during their profession in the nuclear engineering field.
- Demonstrated leadership in service to professional societies or the community.
- Exhibited the highest standards of the Aggie core values.
- Must agree to be included in print and digital media coverage of the awards.
- A current resume of the individual who is being nominated along with a mailing address, telephone number
and email address. - Two one-page letters of support that provide an assessment of the leadership, service and professional accomplishments of the nominee.
- Nominations are currently closed.