Alex Solomon | Disordered Materials (DISMAT) Group

Alex Solomon has previously received a B.S. and M.S. in Nuclear Engineering while working in the DISMAT group, and he is now pursuing a PhD in the same field. He is currently funded by an NEUP/UNLP Fellowship and supported in part by the Tennessee Fellowship for Graduate Excellence.
Alex’s research investigates the structural responses of ceramic materials to swift heavy ion irradiation, particularly those with applications in nuclear (and other energy-related) technologies. This involves irradiating materials with GeV-energy ions and subsequently characterizing structural modifications and disorder across multiple length scales using advanced experimental methods including x-ray and neutron total scattering. Alex’s work has provided insight into structural metastability in simple oxides (AO₂ and A₂O₃), and he is additionally studying the structural responses of advanced carbide fuels and fuel analogues to fission fragment-like irradiation.