Awards

W. Reed Johnson Award for Extraordinary Contributions to the Virginia Section of the American Nuclear Society

This award is given to an individual or individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Virginia Section of the American Nuclear Society (VA-ANS) and lead and inspire others to get actively involved in Section activities. Established in 2007, this award honors Dr. W. Reed Johnson, who was also the first recipient, a University of Virginia emeritus professor who has been the heart and soul of the VA-ANS for many years. Reed's lifetime commitment and tireless dedication to VA-ANS was instrumental in keeping the Section alive through difficult years and was decisive in leading it to become one of the strongest local sections in the country.

W. Reed Johnson Award recipients are selected by the VA-ANS Executive Committee annually. A maximum of one award per year will be given, and only if there is a suitable candidate. Nominees must be VA-ANS members. An appropriately inscribed certificate or plaque will be presented whenever a suitable candidate is selected for the award. Nominations for this award must be submitted by July 1 to the VA-ANS Executive Committee at virginia@local.ans.org. The nomination package must include:

A detailed description of the nominee's contributions to VA-ANS
A proposed title to be inscribed in the plaque
Three endorsement letters

For more information, please contact the VA-ANS Chair.

Section Awards

VA-ANS has won several awards including Best Small Section - Meetings and Programs (2006, 2008), Best Small Section - Public Information and Education (2006, 2008), Best Small Section - Management (2004), and Best Small Section - Membership (2004).

Student Member Awards

Every year ANS sponsors a national student conference. Students from VCU and Virginia Tech frequently participate and compete for best paper and other recognitions. At the April 2025 student conference at the University of New Mexico.

The following nuclear engineering students and their faculty advisors from VCU were recognized:

Best Presentation

"0-D Heat Exchange Modelling of Sample Holder for Production of At-211" --James Vulcanoff, Ph.D., Alexander Coxe, Ph.D., Skye Thurston, Lane B. Carasik, Ph.D.

"Streamlined Analysis of Neutron Emission from Pebble Fuels" --Holden Walker, Braden Goddard, Ph.D.

"The Price of Tomorrow: Making Sense of SMRs vs. Solar Economics" --Daniel Rodriguez, Ph.D., Supathorn Phongikaroon, Ph.D., Oleg Korenok, Ph.D., Ruben Glover.

Best Paper

"Identification of U and Th Surrogates and Their Chemical Characteristics for Chromatographic Separation" --Shams Al Azzawi, Braden Goddard, Ph.D., Jessika V. Rojas, Ph.D., Mahmoud Khatab, Ph.D.

"Non-Destructive Analysis of a Commercial Rubber-Based Shielding Composite" --Nuvin Bazid, Furkan Erdogan, Carlos Blank, Jessika V. Rojas, Ph.D., Braden Goddard, Ph.D.

"Simulations of External Flow Around Twisted Elliptical Tubes for Above Unity Prandtl Numbers and Low to Moderate Reynolds Numbers" --Sierra Tutwiler, Dillon R. Shaver, Ph.D., Lane B. Carasik, Ph.D.

Best Poster

"Generating Gamma-ray Spectra for use in a Machine Learning Model to Differentiate HALEU & HEU" -- Aristidis Loumis-Demetrakopoulos, Tyrell Simmons, Braden Goddard, Ph.D.

The following VT student was recognized: