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Record Number of UT Students Honored by American Nuclear Society

KNOXVILLE—The American Nuclear Society will bestow 11 scholarships on nuclear engineering students from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, at its annual meeting in San Francisco on June 11.

That number, a record for the department, is the latest sign of recognition of UT as a national leader in nuclear engineering education.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment for our students and a reflection of the strengthening of our program over the last decade,” said Wes Hines, head of the department. “Being able to have some of the top students in the country — as acknowledged by these selections — is a key to that growth.”

The impressive total includes two Blount County residents: Gavin Ridley, a graduate of Seymour High School, and Mullin Green, a Maryville High School graduate.

Ridley won the Rudolf Stamm’ler Undergraduate Reactor Physics Scholarship, named for a pioneer in nuclear physics who developed a number of concepts still in use today, while Green received the Sophomore Undergraduate Scholarship.

Other undergraduate winners are:

  • Christopher Haseler, of Fairfax, Virginia
  • Kalie Knecht, of Charleston, West Virginia
  • Austin Saint-Vincent, of Vero Beach, Florida
  • Andrew V. Volkovitskiy, of Louisville, Kentucky

Graduate student winners are:

  • Jessica Bishop, of Fredericksburg, Virginia
  • Rachel Gaudet, of Clarksville, Tennessee
  • Austin Mullen, of West Chester, Ohio
  • John Wagner (hometown withheld)
  • Fan Zhang, of Shanxi, China

The ANS was founded in 1954 as a nonprofit entity with the goal of promoting nuclear science and technology and now includes 11,000 members representing 1,600 universities, research centers, and businesses.

Part of the Tickle College of Engineering, UT’s nuclear engineering department began in 1957 and has produced more than 1,400 graduates, with its doctoral program enrollment tripling in the past seven years.