On October 1, 2020, MAE alumna Kathy McCarthy (Ph.D. ’89) became an Associate Lab Director (ALD) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). She is a former student of MAE Prof. Mohamed Abdou. Dr. McCarthy received her Ph.D. in 1989 in Nuclear Engineering with a research dissertation about fusion. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2019.
Dr. McCarthy will be the ALD for a new Nuclear Science and Engineering Directorate (NSED). She will be in charge of fusion, fission, and fuel cycle divisions as well as the US ITER Project Office.
For more information, please see Dr. McCarthy’s ORNL biography.