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Mark Pierson

Associate Professor of Practice (retired)
  • Thrust Area Specialty: Nuclear Engineering Systems
Mark Pierson
445 Goodwin Hall (0238)
635 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Research Interests

  • Radioisotope betavoltaic batteries
  • Nuclear fuel cycle: alternative back end fuel cycle to minimize long-term radioactive waste disposal through the use of accelerator-driven subcritical systems
  • Nuclear security, nonproliferation and safeguards: Safeguards-by-Design for integral pressurized water small modular reactors
  • Radiation transport, and radiation detection and measurment
  • Nuclear power plan operatons and safety: Digital control rooms, and Outage Management Systems
  • Fusion Demonstration Reactor (Fusor): Undergraduate research project that uses inertial electrostatic confinement deuterium-deuterium fusion to create a star-like plasma and generate neutrons for activation experiments.
  • Used for research and educational outreach

See Dr. Pierson's publications and research on Google Scholar.

  • Ph.D. , Mathematics, Virginia Tech, 2005
  • M.S., Mathematics, Virginia Tech, 2000
  • B.A., German, University of California, Davis