Gaoshan Li, Taylor Loy, Bokki Min, Kyle Vargas, Sonja D. Schmid, Ali Haghighat

Gaoshan Li is a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering at Virginia Tech. She received her master's degree in chemical engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Taylor Loy is a Ph.D. student in Science and Technology Studies with a focus on Nuclear Energy Policy at Virginia Tech. Taylor attended University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as a Brock Scholar in the University Honors program. In five years, he completed dual degrees BA/BS and four majors. From 2006-2008, he completed dual graduate degrees, an MA in English Literature and MS in Science and Technology Studies. From 2012-2019, he worked in the nuclear power industry in operations, as an Assistant Unit Operator, and in operations training, as a Senior Reactor Operator Certified Instructor. Bokki Min is a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, with a B.S. from Purdue University and M.S. from Iowa State University. Kyle Vargas is a Master of Engineering student in Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Tech. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering at the United States Naval Academy. Sonja Schmid is an associate professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS), and serves as the co-director of the STS graduate program in Northern Virginia. For her first book, she studied the history and organization of the emerging Soviet nuclear industry. In other research, she traced the results of Soviet nuclear technology transfer to Central and East European nations that have since joined the European Union. She is particularly interested in examining the interface of national energy policies, technological choices, and nonproliferation concerns. For her most recent NSF-supported research project on the challenges of globalizing nuclear emergency response, she has worked with postdoctoral scholars Davide Orsini (2015-16, Ph.D. University of Michigan) and Başak Saraç Lesavre (2017-18, Ph.D. École des Mines, Paris), and has hosted a monthly speaker series (SIREN) that is now available as an online archive. She teaches courses in social studies of technology, science and technology policy, socio-cultural studies of risk, energy policy, and nuclear nonproliferation. Together with the Nuclear Engineering Program and the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, she developed and launched an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in "Nuclear Science, Technology, and Policy". Alireza Haghighat is a Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Tech, a Fellow at the American Nuclear Society, Director of the Nuclear Engineering Program, and Director of the Mechanical Engineering Program at the Greater Washington Metro Area Campus.