Paul Nelson

Professor, Nuclear Engineering

Date of Appointment: 1987
Office: 129 Zachry Engineering Center
Phone: 979/845-4132
Fax: 979/845-6443
E-mail: pnelson@ne.tamu.edu

Mailing Address: Texas A&M University
Department of Nuclear Engineering
3133 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3133

Education
Ph.D., Mathematics, University of New Mexico, 1969
M.S., Physics, University of New Mexico, 1962
B.S., Engineering Physics, Auburn University, 1958

Courses
NUEN 430, Computational Applications in Nuclear Engineering
NUEN 625, Transport Theory
NUEN 629, Numerical Methods in Reactor Analysis

Areas of Interest
Transport theory
Computational methods
Management of nuclear materials

Curriculum Vita

EXPERIENCE
Academic
Professor of Computer Science, Nuclear Engineering and Mathematics, Texas A&M University, 1987-present
Professor of Mathematics, Texas Tech University, 1972-1987 (joint appointment as Professor of Physics 1985-1987)
Visiting Research Associate, Applied Mathematics, California Institute of Technology, 1985-1986
Visiting Professor of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1977-1978
Research Fellow and Teaching Assistant, University of New Mexico, 1967-1968
Visiting Lecturer, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1964-1965
Research Fellow and Teaching Assistant, University of New Mexico, 1962-1964

Administrative and Supervisory
Director, Institute for Numerical Transport Theory, Texas Tech University, 1977-1987
Acting Chairman, Department of Mathematics, Texas Tech University, 1977-1978
Coordinator of Mathematical Research, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1969-1972
Supervisory of Applications Programming Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1966-1967

Industrial
Research Staff Member, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1969-1972
Staff Member, Sandia National Laboratories-Albuquerque, 1968-1969
Research Staff Member, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1965-1967
Weapons Effects Specialist, Field Command, Defense Nuclear Agency, 1958-1961

Consulting
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratories-Albuquerque
University of Texas at Arlington
Texas Energy and Natural Resources Advisory Council

AWARDS/RECOMMENDATIONS
Fellow of American Nuclear Society, 1997
TEES Fellow, Texas Engineering Experiment Station, 1994
National Academy of Sciences Exchange Program, Poland, 1983
National Science Foundation U.S. -India Exchange of Scientists Program, 1981
National Science Foundation Fellowship, 1961-62

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Advisory Panels
Senior Technical Review Group, Amarilloe National Resource Center for Plutonium, 1995-1997
National Science Foundation, Site visit Team for the Center for Research on Parallel Computation (Rice University), 1991
National Science Foundations Panel on Research Initiation Awards (Computer Science), 1991
National Research Council, Advisory Panel on Graduate Fellowshipd in Applications of Mathematics, 1987-1989

Other
Technical Program Committee for 1995 Topical Meeting of the Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, Portland Oregon
Techincal Program Committe for 1993 Topical Meeting of the Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, Karlsruhe, Germany
Organizing Committee for the International Symposium on Numerical Transport Theory, Moscow, Russia, 1992
Director, U.S.-U.S.S.R. Workshop on Numerical Transport Theory, College Station, TX, 1991
Editor, Transport Theory and Statistical Physics, 1982-present
Editor-in-Chief, Transport Theory, Invariant Imbedding and Integral Equations, Lecture Notes in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 116, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1989
Chair (1990-91) and Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect (1989-90), Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society
Technical Program Committee for 1991 Topical Meeting of the Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, Pittsburgh, PA
Technical Program Committee for 1989 Topical Meeting of the Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, Santa Fe, NM
Program Committee, Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, 1985-present
Organizing Committee for International Conferences in Transport Theory, 1983 (Blacksburg, VA), 1985(Montecatini, Italy), 1987 (La Jolla, CA), 1989 (Blacksburg, VA), 1991 (Albuquerque) and 1993 (Riccione, Italy)
Executive Committee, Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, 1985-88
Chairman, U. S. Organizing Committee, Ninth International Conference on Transport Theory, 1985
Director, NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Analytical and Computational Transport Theory, Italy, 1985
Secretary, Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, 1984-85
Treasurer, Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society, 1982-83
Director, NSF Regional Research Conference, Numerical Solution of Two-Point Boundary-Value Problems, 1974.

SELECTED RECENT PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS:
“Parallel Ray Tracing for One-dimensional Discrete Ordinate Calculations” (with R. D. Jarvis), Procs. International Conference on the Physics of Reactors, Vol. 1, pp. A-294 through A-303, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Mito, Iberaki, Japan, 1996.

“An Abstract Algorithmic View of Spatial Approximations: Application to Modular Code Design and a Novel Parallel Implementation,” XI ENFIR/IV ENAN Joint Nuclear Conferences, Poços de Caldas, MG, Brazil, August 1997. (Invited Paper)

“Time-optimal Parallel Ray-tracing Sweeps in Plane-parallel Discrete Ordinates: Implementation and Testing on a Hypercube” (with R. D. Jarvis), 15th International Conference on Transport Theory, Göteborg, Sweden, June 1997.

“LOCFES-NL: A Tool for Testing Nonlinear Spatial Approximations to Neutron Transport in Plane-parallel Geometry,” Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 78, June 1998 (with S. D. Nolen).
“The Prigogine-Herman Kinetic Model Predicts Widely Scattered Traffic Flow Data at High Concentrations” (with A. Sopasakis), Transportation Research B, November 1998.

“University Contributions to Research in Nuclear Materials Safety,” NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Nuclear Materials Safety (II), St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1998. (Presented by PN, but numerous co-authors)