Event
MSE Seminar: Dr. Heather Chen-Mayer, NIST
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
3:30 p.m.
Room 2108 Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building
Sherri Tatum
301-405-5240
statum12@umd.edu
Nuclear analytical techniques at NIST
Abstract: This presentation offers a brief review of some of the nuclear analytical techniques for elemental analysis at the 20 MW NBSR reactor. These include rabbit tubes for instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), neutron depth profiling (NDP), and thermal and cold neutron prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA). For decades, these techniques contributed to the NIST internal mission for the certification of standards reference material (SRM), and functioned as a part of the User Facility at the NIST Center for Neutron Research hosting academic and industrial R&D efforts. The main focus of this talk is on PGAA for standard bulk analysis and its applications, as well as some research oriented projects such as Compton imaging and ghost imaging for spatially resolved gamma ray mapping, and utilizing the library of whole spectra to train machine learning models for the purpose of rapid material classification. A recent collaboration with UMD under an infrastructure initiative on performing computational and experimental work of the portable neutron generator-based PGAA for chloride in concrete will also be reported.
Bio: Heather Chen-Mayer is part of the Chemical Process and Nuclear Measurements Group, Chemical Sciences Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
