Ahead of NuMAT – The Nuclear Materials Conference, the 2014 Robert Cahn Award has been awarded to Dr. Claudio Ronchi in recognition for his lifetime of outstanding contributions to nuclear materials research, in particular to nuclear fuels and uranium oxide. This award is given in recognition to a lifelong contribution to the field of nuclear materials, and is attributed to an individual with demonstrated ability to communicate science to a wider audience.
Dr. Claudio Ronchi has had a long varied research career at the Institute for Transuranium Elements Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Karlsruhe. Over more than 40 years, he has pioneered the use of numerical approaches to simulate complex physical processes such, and initiated several worldwide unique experimental facilities to investigate structure and properties of nuclear fuels to up extremely high temperatures. Claudio finished his active career at ITU as head of the Materials Research unit in 2006, and his impact on nuclear materials research is undeniable.
The Award is usually presented alongside the lecture at the Nuclear Materials Conference: but as Dr Ronchi was unable to travel to Florida, Elsevier organized a special ceremony at the Institute for Tranuranium Elements. In this lecture, Dr. Ronchi covers three key topics of his research career, synergistic phenomena of fission damage, experiments on irradiated fuel and finally the equation of state of liquid UO2.
Dr Ronchi's presentation can be viewed above.