Nuclear Energy Course Management

Dr Nathaniel Read (Course Director)

Nathan Read was appointed Assistant Teaching Professor (Course Director for the Nuclear Energy MPhil) in September 2023.  His research interests are reactor design and computational reactor modelling, particularly for space power systems, and nuclear safety.  Nathan teaches on a number of modules for the Course, including the Nuclear Safety and the Fission & Fusion Module. 

Dr Paul Cosgrove

Paul Cosgrove is a research associate in the Cambridge University Engineering Department working on Monte Carlo methods in nuclear engineering. His PhD thesis focused on numerical methods for nuclear reactor analysis, namely neutron transport and isotopic depletion. Additional research interests include multi-physics reactor simulation, stability analysis of novel algorithms, and the role of energy storage in decarbonisation

Professor Ian Farnan

Ian Farnan is a Professor in Mineral Physics and is Head of the Cambridge Nuclear Energy Centre (CNEC – www.cnec.uk ) He is an expert in the effect of nuclear radiation on materials and has developed nuclear magnetic resonance methods to provide an element specific probe of radiation damage and actinide substitution in a range of materials from nuclear fuels and claddings to waste forms.

He is an expert consultant to EC-JRC Institute for Transuranics (ITU) Karlsruhe and a William R. Wiley Distinguished Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Professor William (Bill) J Nuttall

Bill Nuttall is the Professor of Energy at The Open University. In 1987 he won a Fulbright Post-Graduate Student Award to MIT, where he first became interested in science and technology public policy, receiving his PhD in 1993. He is the author of the book Nuclear Renaissance (Taylor and Francis 2005). His current research interests include hydrogen energy and future electricity systems, as well as nuclear electricity technology policy – the area for which he is probably best known. In that regard in 2015 he delivered the Clerk-Maxwell prestige lecture for the IET. He also serves on the Nuclear Power Committee of the IMechE and he is lead editor of the journal Proceedings of the ICE -  ENERGY. He is a Fellow of Hughes Hall, a college of the University of Cambridge

Professor Geoff Parks

Professor Geoff Parks received both his BA in Engineering and his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Cambridge. He is a Professor in Nuclear Engineering and a Fellow at Jesus College. Professor Parks heads the Computational Design Group in the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre, which researches into the application of advanced optimization, simulation, modelling and analysis methods to difficult real-world problems in a wide variety of application areas.

Professor Parks is also a member of the Future Nuclear Systems group, which focusses on the analysis and design of potential future nuclear reactor systems and fuel cycles. He is also interested in other applications of nuclear technology, for instance: civil marine propulsion, radioisotope generation, and space applications.

Professor Eugene Shwageraus 

Eugene Shwageraus is a Professor in Nuclear Energy Systems Engineering at Cambridge University Engineering Department. Prior to joining the University of Cambridge, he was the Head of Nuclear Engineering Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.  He spent two years as a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he took part in an interdisciplinary study on The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.

Professor Shwageraus’ research is focussed on physics and engineering of conventional and advanced nuclear power reactors, with a particular interest in Monte Carlo methods applied to radiation transport, as well as modelling of nuclear systems to assist policy decision making.  He was the Course Director of the MPhil in Nuclear Energy from 2012 until 2023.