When he arrived in College Station from Hungary to begin his doctorate, the scorching Texas heat was a shock to nuclear engineering student Peter German. But he more than adjusted to the Aggie life, finding an enriching, collaborative research environment and making career-long connections that he has brought with him to his current job at Idaho National Laboratory.
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in energy engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, German arrived at Texas A&M in August 2017 to begin his Ph.D.
While here, he worked on multiphysics computations for molten salt reactors, an experimental design with a long history that currently shows promise as a next-generation nuclear reactor. Model order reduction was the focus of German’s doctoral research. This process involves using computer simulations to make the engineering and development process much faster than if a human were to test and adjust a system. Reducing the complexity of these simulations can further accelerate the process and produce results in a matter of seconds.
“It’s a little bit of data science, a little bit of math, and we combine all that together to accelerate uncertainty quantification and design optimization processes,” he said.
German studied and pursued this research under the mentorship of nuclear engineering professor Jean Ragusa.
"Guiding Ph.D. students is a journey of mutual growth," Ragusa said. "At the outset, I share a wealth of knowledge, and they work hard to absorb it. But I consider a Ph.D. truly successful when, along the way, I learn something new from the student. In many ways, that's what research is all about."
Speaking highly of his experience at Texas A&M, German said he benefited from a solid support system, from the nuclear engineering faculty to the International Student & Scholar Services department.
Keep grinding when you are more or less certain that you can graduate, but if you feel a little bit of fatigue, just keep pushing. In the beginning or the middle, if you manage to identify that you're in a bad spot, don't be afraid to change
The COVID-19 pandemic struck during German’s doctoral studies, but it didn’t slow down his Ph.D. progress. Ragusa cites German’s independence and excellent work ethic as the factor that kept things going smoothly.
"I had poured a great deal of energy, effort, and knowledge into guiding Peter, and by the time COVID-19 hit, Peter was driving his progress with remarkable momentum," he said. "We had reached the point where the flow of knowledge was truly reciprocal. For other students, it might have been a challenging transition, but with Peter, it hardly slowed us down at all."
German joined INL as a postdoctoral researcher in 2021 and was promoted to staff member the next year. He is a computational scientist working on using different computational methods to simulate what happens in a nuclear reactor. Specifically, he works on INL’s Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment, or MOOSE, a software that can simulate many physics phenomena in a nuclear reactor and is widely used among researchers at INL and elsewhere.
One project he works on is using machine learning to more quickly develop computational methods. He also helps develop programs that can simulate fluid dynamics in advanced nuclear reactors.
INL wasn’t the only national laboratory in German’s sights; he also considered Oak Ridge and Argonne national laboratories. When it came to choosing a workplace, however, joining former colleagues was a major factor in choosing INL. Today, he still works with a number of fellow former graduate students from Texas A&M.
“It's a small community in Idaho Falls,” German said. “It's not as large as Chicago or Knoxville, but I knew there were going to be people here who I already had a close relationship with.”
The relationship between Texas A&M and INL goes beyond an informal network of colleagues. There is a group of Aggies of all ages at INL that meet and stay connected, and interns from Texas A&M often come to INL.
“Intern season is great, lots of motivated young people bringing a lot of energy,” German said.
Furthermore, German’s work at INL is part of a continuation of his mentor Ragusa’s long-time involvement with INL. Ragusa has worked with INL on MOOSE since 2007, and nearly half of his Ph.D. students have gone on to work at INL on the MOOSE framework and its applications. German exemplifies the continuous, growing pipeline of outstanding Texas A&M students helping to study and engineer the future of advanced nuclear reactor systems.
“It’s a constant pipeline,” Ragusa said. “The A&M connection has been there for a very long time, and hopefully will continue for many more years. Peter and the other students are just solidifying what we have built over the years by showing how excellent they can be at the lab.”
German offers two seemingly contradictory pieces of advice to current Ph.D. students: persevere in the face of obstacles, but don’t be afraid to take a detour if things aren’t working out. Most students will hit a wall at some point but make it through the challenge with persistence. On the other hand, German knew other students who started their Ph.D. studies in one area of research but found that it was not a good fit. Because of this realization, they were able to switch to a project that better suited their interests within the first couple of years of their Ph.D. program.
“Keep grinding when you are more or less certain that you can graduate, but if you feel a little bit of fatigue, just keep pushing,” German said. “In the beginning or the middle, if you manage to identify that you're in a bad spot, don't be afraid to change.”