Risk-informed Methods and Applications in Nuclear and Energy Engineering: Modeling, Experimentation, and Validation

Dr. Curtis Smith is the Director for the Idaho National Laboratory Nuclear Safety and Regulatory Research Division. His most recent appointment is in serving as the lead for the Risk Integration and Uncertainty Working Group for the NASA Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel (INSRP) on the Mars 2020 mission. Dr. Smith has been in the risk and reliability assessment field for more than 28 years. He has worked at INL as a risk analysis specialist and has served as a consultant for a diverse set of organizations including the Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and other government and private companies. Dr. Smith has published over 200 papers, books, and reports on risk and reliability theory and application. He has taught over 100 technical and university courses on a variety of reliability and safety topics. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Nuclear Society, and the Idaho Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Diego Mandelli is an R&D Scientist in the “Reliability, Risk and Resilience Sciences” Department at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). His areas of expertise include risk, reliability, and system health management. His research focuses on the development of probabilistic methods based on machine learning, data mining and optimization algorithms. He is currently employing these methods to perform state-of-the-art simulation-based safety assessment (also known as dynamic probabilistic risk assessment), system health management and stochastic resource optimization. His developed methods range from data pre-processing, system modeling, system analysis, data mining/visualization, and decision making. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Nuclear Engineering from The Ohio State University (2011). He is a member of the American Nuclear Society.

Katya Le Blanc is a senior human factors scientist who has been conducting research in the energy sector at INL for 11 years. Her research in nuclear power plant modernization has led transformational change in the way field operators conduct procedures and has improved operator interfaces for control of nuclear power plants. She has designed human-system interfaces for transmission system technologies and cyber security for electric grid operation. She leads research in several complex, multidisciplinary subjects including nuclear power plant modernization, and cyber security risk characterization in nuclear power and critical infrastructure. She is the deputy National Technical Director the Department of Energy Nuclear Energy's Cyber security program, and leads research on cyber security risk management for nuclear power. Katya has over 100 technical publications in the subject of human factors in the energy sector. She is a senior member of IEEE, and holds a PhD and Master’s degree in cognitive psychology from New Mexico State and a BS in Psychology from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.