Profile

Education

• Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 1997
• M.S., Air Force Institute of Technology, 1992
• B.S., Texas A&M University, 1984
• Licensed Professional Nuclear Engineer, P.E. #44144, State of Florida, 1991-Present

Research Areas and Descriptors

• Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics: Particle transport and numerical methods, nuclear systems analysis with parallel computing: power generation, defense programs, non-destructive testing, detection, and medical applications. Also, heat transfer, computational fluids, and high-performance computing applications.

Background

Dr Sjoden came to Georgia Tech in November 2010.  Prior to this, he was a faculty member in nuclear engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Dr Sjoden has more than  26 years of experience, spanning a broad range of science and engineering applications serving in numerous capacities - as a technical director, nuclear research officer, professor, lead design engineer, and as a licensed engineering consultant. This includes over 15 years experience in treaty monitoring with the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), and work in nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) arms control, and on advanced technology defense programs for the U.S. Government. Dr Sjoden also served as a technical expert and research lead for critical reviews supporting the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and numerous classified defense projects. In addition, he completed more than  20 years of military service in the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 2004 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Research

Dr Sjoden is an expert in integrated nuclear system design, simulation, optimization, and methods development for both nuclear power systems and radiation detection applications. He has significant experience in nonproliferation research and engineering, deterministic and Monte Carlo radiation transport methods, and maintains computational/numerical skills, including parallel/high-performance computing development, optimization, and simulation. Dr Sjoden is also the principal developer of the PENTRAN 3-D Sn Parallel Particle Transport Code, and co-developer of a patent pending process for spectral peak deconvolution from scintillator detectors. Recent funded research projects have included the following subject areas:

• Modeling, simulation, and optimization of whole core transport models for reactor physics analysis and benchmarking (DoD, NRC)
• 3-D burnup and actinide generation/transmutation assessments for power systems and non-proliferation monitoring (DoD)
• Development of new protocols and methods for HEU detection and cargo monitoring in long dwell counting for trans-shipment security (DoE/NNSA, Quintell)
• Radiation transport analysis and optimization of a synthetic aperture detection system for SNM detection in moving vehicles (DoE/NNSA)
• Assessment of the thermal pulse coupling from an IND in street canyons, and data fed from this project was used in a study of thermal damage to automobile painted surfaces for fundamental IND yield assessment (DoD)
• Development and improvement of the ASEDRA spectral deconvolution algorithm to synthetically improve realized resolution in scintillator detectors by a factor of three (NRC, DoE/NNSA)

Links

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