Dr. Cazalas's research group (CAZ-RAD) works to understand the physics and engineering of nuclear and radiation interactions, tools, and instruments for radiation detector development, advancement of the field of dosimetry, and investigation of radiation effects. This work goes into application by supporting the fields of nuclear engineering, radiation and nuclear physics, nuclear security, and radiation damage and hardness effects in electronics.

Dr. Tara Mastren is a nuclear assistant professor in the CVEEN department. Her teaching and research interests are in nuclear medicine, which targets radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer and Alzheimer’s, lanthanide and actinide chemistry, and isotope production. Dr. Mastren tells all of our CVEEN students, “if you want to go into research science, get as much lab experience as possible.”

Dr. McDonald has successfully steered the development of a leading environmental radiochemistry laboratory, mentoring over thirty students, and managing $5 M in research funding. McDonald was also the University Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Nuclear Forensics Undergraduate Summer School in 2017 and 2018. Before joining Utah, McDonald performed a post-doctoral fellowship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Environmental Radiochemistry and worked as a visiting scientist at the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique in Saclay, France, after completing his Ph.D. at Washington State University in Radiochemistry.

Dr. Sjoden’s teaching interests are numerical methods and nuclear physics. As an expert in radiation transport and nuclear reactor physics, “understanding where and how radiation interacts” in any engineering application is key. In addition, Glenn also pursues development and application of numerical algorithms for modeling novel applications, integrated engineering design, and physics-based optimization employing his proficiency in High Performance Computing (HPC).