Maria A. Okuniewski

The over-arching goals of Dr. Okuniewski's research focus on understanding the connections between the microstructure of nuclear materials and fuels and their mechanical properties. Microstructural evolution is studied as a function of radiation damage and/or fabrication and processing of the nuclear systems. This research aims to connect phenomena that span multiple spatial (atomistic to mesoscale) and temporal (picoseconds to seconds) scales. Her research utilizes both experimental and modeling techniques in a complementary fashion. She has also been instrumental in developing new techniques and expanding the capabilities of existing techniques to apply to nuclear fuels and materials such as positron annihilation spectroscopy, nanoindentation, synchrotron X-ray diffraction and tomography, neutron diffraction, and focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy applications.