Dr. Abigail A. Bickley, PhD
Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering
Teaching Timeline
3/20-present Title: Assistant Professor, Department: Nuclear Engineering, Engineering Physics
Institution: Air Force Institute of Technology
Responsibilities: Teaching responsibilities: NENG635, NENG681,NENG680, NENG880.
Research responsibilities: Principal advisor for research of 2 MS students. Committee member for 3 MS students and 2 PhD students.
6/17-3/20 Title: Research Assistant Professor, Department: Nuclear Engineering, Engineering Physics
Institution: Air Force Institute of Technology
Responsibilities: Developed and taught new MS level course titled Nuclear Forensics (NENG680A). Developed and taught new PhD-level course titled Advanced Nuclear Forensics (NENG880A). Conduct nondestructive nuclear forensics analysis of particles containing nuclear fuel produced in non-yield bearing nuclear tests and accidents. Develop analytical capabilities to quantitatively (XRF, ICP-MS) and qualitatively (Digital Autoradiography) assess actinide content of debris particles. Integrate existing programmatic capability in materials analysis (SEM) and radiation detection (HPGe) into nuclear forensics analyses. Apply computational radiation and particle transport tools to nuclear forensics (GEANT4, MCNP, SCALE, ORIGAMI, DELFIC, HPAC). Model space radiation environment to determine materials interactions in proposed satellite system (SIRE2). Develop radiation transport models for USNDS Diorama validation. Manage and maintain software for NENG high performance computing Linux system housed at AFRL/DSRC. Principal advisor for research of 2 MS students. Committee member for 7 MS students and 1 PhD student.
3/10-7/12 Research Assistant Professor
Location: Nuclear Engineering, Engineering Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology
Responsibilities: Developed solid state neutral particle detection methods for nuclear forensics applications including neutron spectrometer design and engineering for portable remote detection. Utilized radiation transport tools to design and optimize radiation detectors constructed of novel sensing materials (GEANT4, MCNP, SRIM, TRIM). Modelled nuclear fallout dynamics (DELFIC, HPAC). Nuclear forensics research group chair. Thesis committee member for 6 MS students.
5/07-10/10 Assistant Professor
Location: Chemistry and National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab, Michigan State University
Responsibilities: Principal investigator of the Active Target-Time Projection Chamber Collaboration, a multi-institutional and multi-national research collaboration funded by a $700K NSF MRI grant. Designed experiments and computational models (C++, Fortran) to assess signatures of isospin asymmetry to study the nuclear equation of state. Simulated, designed and built a prototype gas-filled time projection chamber using gas electron multipliers for tracking and identifying charged particles generated in low energy nuclear physics experiments (GEANT4, ROOT, SRIM, TRIM).
7/04, 7/05, 7/06, 7/09 Nuclear Chemistry and Nuclear Physics Lecturer
Location: Nuclear Chemistry Summer School Institution: American Chemical Society and Brookhaven National Lab.
Responsibilities: Delivered lectures covering nuclear reactions to undergraduate students in a 10-week intensive nuclear chemistry lecture and laboratory course.
6/01-8/01 Nuclear Chemistry Teaching Assistant
Location: Nuclear Chemistry Summer School, American Chemical Society and Brookhaven National Lab.
Responsibilities: Supervised undergraduate students in a 10-week intensive nuclear chemistry lecture and laboratory course.
8/00-6/01 Chemistry Teaching Assistant
Location: Chemistry and Biochemistry Institution: University of Maryland Responsibilities: Supervised undergraduate general chemistry students in the laboratory. Provided pre-laboratory lectures and laboratory grades.