Nuclear engineering professor Dr. Jim Morel was recently named a 2020 distinguished alumnus of the University of New Mexico. Today, Morel is one of the world’s leading experts on computational methods, especially for particle transport problems.
Morel completed his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at the university in 1980 and worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a technical staff member and group leader. He also taught as an adjunct professor for many years.
He periodically taught a graduate course on computational radiation transport, served as a member of numerous student dissertation research committees and supervised the dissertation research of three students. He was also named the first national laboratory professor in the university’s chemical and nuclear engineering department.
“There is no doubt that my experience at the University of New Mexico significantly contributed to Texas A&M’s decision to offer me a full professor position with tenure on arrival in 2005,” said Morel.
Morel, who has been with the Department of Nuclear Engineering for more than 15 years, is the director of the Center for Large-Scale Scientific Simulations as well as the co-director of the Joint Center for Resilient National Security.