James Passmore
Born in Arlington Texas, James joined Texas A&M as an undergraduate in Nuclear Engineering in 2018. Upon graduating in 2022, James went on to pursue his Masters of Science and joined the Advanced Energy Systems Laboratory under Dr. Tsvetkov where he started his research in conducting uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis of the Molten Salt Research Reactor particularly in fuel salt composition. Additionally James is a Graduate Full-Year Intern with Sandia National Laboratories. James hopes to be a part of the solution for providing affordable low-emission energy across the world.
Ronald Daryll E. Gatchalian
Ronald obtained his bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics (Health Physics) from the University of the Philippines-Manila in 2016. After graduation, he joined the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DOST-PNRI), the sole government agency in the Philippines that is mandated to promote and regulate peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the country. Since 2016, he has been working under the Nuclear Reactor Operations Section of DOST-PNRI which nurtured his interest in nuclear reactor engineering. He underwent several training activities for professional development under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and Czech Technical University. In 2020, he joined the AESL at Texas A&M University to pursue his interest in the design and analysis of nuclear reactors. His studies were supported by the DOST-Science Education Institute under its Foreign Graduate Scholarship Program. He graduated with a PhD in December 2023, and has returned to the Philippines to continue his career.
Miguel Avalos
Masters Student
Mario Mendoza
Mario is originally from Mexico City, Mexico and moved to the Houston area before beginning middle school. He decided to attend Texas A&M University to study a Bachelors of Science in Nuclear Engineering after developing an interest in high school. Mario graduated from Texas A&M with his B.S. in May 2019 and started his M.S./Ph.D. under Dr. Pavel Tsvetkov the following fall semester. Mario explored various research interests during his undergrad, including nuclear safeguards. Today, his main interests include advanced reactors, with an emphasis on microreactors, advanced nuclear space systems, and potential nuclear system artificial intelligence integration. Mario was a fellow for the Department of Energy NEUP program. He has also had summer internships at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India and at Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation – Tech in Seattle, WA. His M.S. research involved the development of a multi-modal CubeSat-based remote monitoring system for the determination of localized phenomena pertaining to nuclear security through an artificial intelligence characterization methodology. For his PhD research, Mario explored automated, machine learning-based control systems for microreactors. Mario graduated with his PhD in May 2023, and is currently employed at USNC-Tech.