Most recently he and his team have developed a prototype for a portable, low-cost, wireless radiation detector capable of spectroscopy. It has potential applications in nuclear emergency response, defense, and home safety.

Abi's research interests include development of advanced radiation detectors for imaging and spectroscopy, designing compact and high-speed digital pulse processors and associated firmwares (in FPGA) for real-time radiation measurement and gamma ray imaging, and development of multilayer scintillation (phoswich) detectors for homeland security.

Abi enjoys traveling around the world and camping. He has been at Oregon State University since 2006.

Prior to OSU, Kathryn served as Reactor Supervisor for the Reed College TRIGA reactor. She has held research positions at three research reactors including Reed College, Washington State University, and Oregon State University. She spent 14 years with Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories as an environmental health physicist at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Since 2015, she has served as the faculty advisor for the Oregon State student chapter of the Institute for Nuclear Material Management (INMM). Her current research includes investigating robotic applications for nuclear safeguards, introducing new analytical techniques for nuclear forensics, and nuclear forensic signature development.

Dr. Palmer began her career performing nuclear weapons effects simulations to quantify test parameters to comply with Air Force nuclear survivability requirements (Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, 2003-2006). This position subsequently led her to Los Alamos National Lab where she has served two different stints.

In 2006-2007 she was a Technical Staff Member in the Thermonuclear Applications Group (X-2) supporting the Air Force Team’s predictive capabilities for weapon design. As a part of the Stockpile Stewardship effort, she contributed to weapon code validation and verification simulating the secondary stage of the W-78. Returning in 2011, Dr. Palmer used her experience in the National Technical Nuclear Forensics team (XTD-4) analyzing post-detonation signatures of foreign and improvised nuclear devices.

In her time in X-Division she was mentored by physicists with experience performing nuclear weapons tests, and was trained as a student of the Theoretical Institute for Thermonuclear and Nuclear Studies (TITANS). She is a current member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI).

These interests also include the speciation of these metals in aqueous and organic solutions; complexation with man-made and natural ligands affecting their behavior in separation processes and mobility in natural bio-geochemical systems; effects of radiolysis, hydrolysis and redox interactions in these systems, including development of new separation materials and methods for medical and environmental applications (radiochemical sensors and waste treatment).

Dr. Paulenova is also an adjunct professor in the OSU Department of Chemistry.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Reese served in the external dosimetry section (1991-1993), Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory; and OSU Radiation Safety Office (1997-1998), reactor administrator (1998 -2005), OSU Radiation Center. He is a member of the Health Physics Society, American Board of Health Physicists, and American Nuclear Society.

He is also investigating an interrogation technique based on photon-induced fission to detect concealed special nuclear material. Yang is researching applications of laser technologies for material characterization in post-irradiation examination, nuclear safeguards and nuclear forensics.

In addition, he is investigating low-cost, high-performance radiation detection with nanostructured radiation sensors and spintronics devices as alternatives to traditional detectors. The revolutionary improvement of radiation detection has significant impact in areas beyond nuclear material detection, including medical imaging, high-energy physics, and nondestructive testing.