Professor Sergio Lozano-Perez wins Excellence Award in Nuclear Science

Professor Sergio Lozano-Perez, George Kelley Senior Research Fellow at the Hall, has been presented by Framatome with their first Excellence in Nuclear Reactor Science in the UK Award. The award recognises his significant contributions to nuclear science and research, and was presented during a ceremony at the French Embassy in London.

Professor Lozano-Perez’s research has focused on improving understanding of how nuclear reactor materials change in the operating reactor over time. Among his numerous accomplishments, Professor Lozano-Perez has developed a reliable methodology to characterise the material properties of a crack tip in components like steam generators using a transmission electron microscope and an atom probe to facilitate examinations in great detail. His team has also worked with several manufacturers to develop improved instruments that can detect difference in these areas as small as a few nanometres.  Professor Lozano-Perez and his team are currently working to explain what causes stress corrosion and cracking in the propagation of pressurised water reactors by characterising the alloys used in these systems.

Speaking of the award, Professor Lozano-Perez says “This award is a recognition to the work that we do at Oxford Materials where, for many years, we have tried to push the boundaries of characterisation to see materials’ problems in a way no one had seen before. People like Profs John Titchmarsh, Mike Jenkins, George Smith or Chris Grovenor paved the way before me and made it possible for my group to achieve the results that are contributing to a better understanding of materials properties. Our work has focused on the understanding of environmental degradation of nuclear materials, including corrosion, stress corrosion cracking and radiation damage. We have been very lucky to interact very closely with the nuclear industry from many countries around the world, particularly France and Japan, contributing to the development of safer materials and more efficient nuclear reactors.”

The Hall is very proud of his achievements and congratulate him for this incredible achievement.

For more information, read the news story on the Framatome website here.