Dr. Richard Wilkins holds a Ph.D. (1991) in physics from the University of Michigan. His research interests focus on radiation effects and dosimetry, and he has co-authored over fifty journal publications on subjects from single-electron tunneling to radiation biology. In collaboration with Rice University, he led an effort to perform the first radiation experiments on carbon nanotube materials for which he was awarded a Group Achievement Award from NASA in 2001. He is currently an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Center for Applied Radiation Research (CARR) since 2000. Dr. Wilkins’ research interests are in radiation effects on electronic materials and devices, nano-scale materials and devices and shielding/structural materials, radiation dosimetry instrumentation and measurements. More on Dr. Wilkins
Dr. Kelvin Kirby holds a Baccalaureate Degree in electrical engineering from Prairie View A&M University. He completed both a Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering and a Doctorate of Engineering from Texas A&M University. After graduating from Prairie View A&M University, he served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for over thirteen years. His current duties include Deputy Director of the Prairie View A&M University, NASA Center for Radiation Engineering and Science for Space Exploration (CRESSE) and Program Manager of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Enhancement Program. His research foci include, Systems Engineering, Engineering Education and Radiation Effects in Electronics. More on Dr. Kirby
Dr. Sukesh Aghara has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the Department of Chemical Engineering as Tenure-Track Professor, Dr. Aghara was a research faculty at the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory in Austin, Texas. His research interests are in radiation transport methods and simulations, radiation characterization, design of benchmark experiments at reactor and beam facilities for verification of radiation transport codes. He has numerous publications in the areas of radiation characterization, radiation effects in electronics, verification and validation of radiation transport codes and benchmarking. Dr. Aghara spent a year with the Space Radiation group at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) as a NASA Administrator’s Fellow (NAFP). He is current the lead on the efforts to establish a nuclear engineering concentration in the College of Engineering at Prairie View A&M University. More on Dr. Aghara
Dr. Brad “Buddy” Gersey holds a Ph.D. in radiation physics from the Department of Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University. His graduate research was funded under the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) grant which was jointly awarded to Colorado State University and the Berkeley National Laboratory. His research specialty is in the field of radiation dosimetry called microdosimetry, the study of and measurement of energy deposition by radiation in very small volumes of material on the order of several micro-meters across. Microdosimetry has scientific and engineering applications in radiation effects on electronics, radiation carcinogenesis, radiation oncology, and radiation damage of materials. His research interests include the application of microdosimetry to radiation effects on human tissue and cellular structures, electronics components and systems, and composite multifunctional materials. He also focuses on the development of next generation space radiation detection systems. Gersey is currently a Research Scientist Group Leader for the Center for Radiation Engineering and Science for Space Exploration (CRESSE) at Prairie View A&M University. More Dr. Gersey
Dr. Premkumar Saganti holds a Ph.D. in Physics (1994) from Andhra University in Waltair, India. He is currently a NASA Research Faculty with the NASA Center for Applied Radiation Research and an Associate Professor of Physics at Prairie View A&M University where he serves as principal investigator on two NASA grants including the Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) and Radiation Inter-university Science and Engineering (RaISE) as well as PI on Quantum Multiple Scattering and Fragmentation (QMSFRG), a NASA Co-Op Agreement. For more than 15 years, Dr. Saganti contributed to the NASA Exploration Vision through the Image Science Analysis Group at NASA-JSC, supporting more than 20 Space Shuttle missions including Hubble Space Telescope repair missions, MIR and ISS. More on Dr. Saganti
Dr. Jianren Zhou, a Professor and Interim Head in Mechanical Engineering Department, has worked in research areas of processing, testing and characterizations of nanomaterials and composites. He has had many externally funded research projects, has published over 70 papers, and supervised many postdoctoral students, graduate students and undergraduate research assistants. Dr. Zhou has served in numerous professional positions, such as, panelist in NASA Educator Astronaut Minimum Qualifications Review Panel, NASA Review Panel, Editorial Advisory Board of a journal, and referee for journals. His research focus is on engineering materials, processing and characterization of nanomaterials and radiation shielding of composite materials. More on Dr. Zhou