Xingang Zhao, an R&D associate staff member in the Modern Nuclear I&C group at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was recognized at the 2024 American Nuclear Society Annual Conference with the Ted Quinn Early Career Award.
This designation is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding early-career contributions to nuclear instrumentation and control or human-machine interface technologies. The award was established in 2017 and is named after Ted Quinn, a recognized leader in nuclear instrumentation and controls and past American Nuclear Society President.
Zhao was specifically recognized for his pivotal role in developing and integrating human-machine interface technologies, particularly digital twins, artificial intelligence, decision science, prognostics and health management, to enhance the safety and efficiency of nuclear power plants. He is one of three ORNL researchers to receive this award since 2022.
Zhao came to ORNL as a postdoctoral associate and joined the lab as an R&D associate staff member in 2022. His research emphasis is on thermal hydraulics, instrumentation and controls, and their intersections with artificial intelligence and decision science. He is a significant contributor to a diverse portfolio of research projects that advance the state-of-the-art of modeling and simulation and digital engineering for applications in both legacy and next-generation nuclear reactors. He holds a doctorate in nuclear science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
