On October 21, alumnus Xiaodong Sun,  a professor within the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS) in the University of Michigan (UM), was named a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS).

The honored membership grade of Fellow is awarded to ANS members for outstanding accomplishment in any one of the areas of nuclear science and engineering. The honor of receiving the highest membership grade of the Society is reserved for senior members of good reputation who have compiled a professional record of experience marked by significant contribution to the advancement of one or more of the various disciplines served by the society.

Sun was recognized by the ANS for his significant contributions to research in two-phase flow and heat transfer, interfacial area transport modeling and experimentation, thermal-hydraulic phenomena in advanced reactors, and high-temperature compact heat exchangers to improve modeling capabilities and support reactor development, and those as an educator and mentor of nuclear engineering students and researchers.

Sun received a Master’s degree in nuclear engineering in 1996 and Bachelor’s degree in thermal engineering in 1993 from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Later, he received his PhD in nuclear engineering and Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 2001.

At NERS of UM, Sun is the Undergraduate Program Chair and the director of the Thermal Hydraulics Laboratory. Sun’s research interests include thermal-hydraulics and reactor safety, two-phase flow experimentation and modeling, interfacial structure characterization, and more. Sun’s group is investigating post-critical heat flux (CHF) heat transfer at high-pressure and high-flow conditions for LWRs in collaboration with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and developing an extensive two-phase flow experimental database collaborating with Virginia Tech. Sun’s group is also researching molten salt heat transfer and natural circulation flow for MSRs, studying graphite-moisture reaction phenomena during postulated water/steam ingress accidents in HTGRs, developing a compact high-temperature steam generator for a horizontally-oriented compact HTGR being designed by a team led by MIT, and supporting experimental vehicle development for the Versatile Test Reactor.