Dr. Lin Shao, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently awarded a University Professorship. He was one of four faculty members honored for having demonstrated significant and sustained accomplishments in their discipline, earning them national and international recognition. The award also highlights the recipients’ commitment to inclusivity, accountability, climate and equity in their departments, colleges and throughout their service at Texas A&M.
Shao has been teaching at Texas A&M for 14 years. He is well-known by his students for his passion to always focus on the fundamentals and big-picture-scenarios, as well as his ability to explain complex theories in a simple manner. He strongly supports students gaining hands-on research experience as much as possible and as early as possible in their career paths, and has hired about 50 undergraduate student interns so far. He designs research mentoring plans for each of them while taking into consideration their individual backgrounds and interests. Shao has graduated 16 doctoral students so far. Three are assistant professors at peer institutes, three are mangers at Intel Inc. and most of the others are researchers at national laboratories.
As the undergraduate program advisor, Shao is dedicated to improving student advising, retention and outreach. His biggest challenge is helping prospective students better understand the variety of career paths offered by an education in nuclear engineering.
“The efforts to further optimize our curriculum, diversify career tracks and develop innovative teaching methods are forever important to us,” said Shao.
Shao enjoys his work as a researcher and educator, and hopes his students learn to understand the value of their life’s work. “Many people continue a career because they get used to doing the things they are doing,” said Shao. “I want my students to understand that passion should be the driving force behind what they do.”
I want my students to understand that passion should be the driving force behind what they do.
Shao is internationally known for his pioneering work in radiation materials science. He directs the accelerator laboratory, which is the largest university ion irradiation facility for nuclear materials testing. The lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national user facility, and helps the nation for various alloy developments for advanced reactors. Shao’s major interests are to understand materials behaviors under extreme conditions. Accelerators are used as a unique tool to emulate a reactor’s harsh environments. He has published 230 journal papers and holds 11 U.S. patents.
Shao frequently served as general chair for international conferences. He has been funded for more than 40 projects with a total budget of $16 million. He has received many teaching and research awards, including the inaugural IBMM Prize in 2008, the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award in 2009 and the TEES Senior Faculty Fellow Award in 2019. Shao is a fellow of American Nuclear Society.
Created in 2019, the University Professorship has a unique feature that allows the holder to personally name the professorship for a significant emeritus or deceased Texas A&M faculty member who has served as inspiration or motivation for the holder.
Shao hopes to name his professorship after Dr. Robert Cochran, the founder of the nuclear engineering department.