Matthew Polinski, a Ph.D. student with Prof. Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt, has been awarded a Second Place prize in the U.S. Department of Energy's Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Awards competition. Polinski’s award is in the Open Competition in the category of Waste Forms. His award-winning research paper, "Bonding Changes in Plutonium(III) and Americium(III) Borates," was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie in September 2011.
The Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Awards program is designed to: 1) award graduate and undergraduate students for innovative fuel-cycle-relevant research publications, 2) demonstrate the Office of Fuel Cycle Technologies' commitment to higher education in fuel-cycle-relevant disciplines, and 3) support communications among students and DOE representatives.
The program awarded 24 prizes in 2012 for student publications and presentations relevant to the nuclear fuel cycle. In addition to cash awards, winning students will have a variety of other opportunities including presenting their winning publication during the American Nuclear Society Winter meeting, participating in an Innovators' Forum, and participating in the DOE Office of Fuel Cycle Technologies Annual Meeting.