Associate Professor Patrick A Burr

My Expertise

Currently taking PhD applicants – more detail here: patrickburr.com

Nuclear Engineering
- Nuclear fuel cycle
- Fusion energy
- Next generation reactors (Gen IV reactors, small modular reactors, and current/old reactor types)
- Research reactors (nuclear medicine production and neutron generation for science)
- Nuclear waste management
Material science
- Nuclear materials
- Degradation of materials (corrosion, irradiation, high temperature, etc)
- Simulations and modelling of materials

Keywords

nuclear

energy materials

photovoltaic materials

metals and alloys

ceramic

renewable energy materials

solar energy materials

radiation

materials

fusion energy

materials degradation

materials for extreme environments

radiation-matter interaction

Fields of Research (FoR)

Metals and alloy materials, Ceramics, Nuclear engineering (incl. fuel enrichment and waste processing and storage), Condensed matter modelling and density functional theory

Biography

Full detail here: patrickburr.com

The central aim of my research is to discover the degradation mechanisms of materials used in energy applications, to aid the design of new materials with improved resilience to degradation processes.

Full detail here: patrickburr.com

I have largely focussed on nuclear materials (fusion and fission) as these are subject to the most extreme conditions and therefore pose the greatest challenge, but I continually transfer the knowledge to solar cells, solid electrolyte fuel cells, electrochemical capacitor and batteries. Specific areas of expertise include:

Material science
- Degradation of materials (corrosion, irradiation, high temperature, etc)
- Materials for extreme environments (Fusion energy, outer space, extreme temperatures)
- Solar photovoltaic materials
- Nuclear materials
- Battery materials
- Simulations and modelling of materials
Nuclear Engineering
- The nuclear fuel cycle
- Fusion energy
- Next generation reactors (Gen IV reactors, small modular reactors, and current/old reactor types)
- Research reactors (nuclear medicine production and neutron generation for science)
- Nuclear waste management

Learn more here.

Up-to-date publication list on Google Scholar, Research Gate, Mendeley, or ORCID.

My Grants

Chief Investigator

ARC mid-career industry fellowship IM230100125 – Life prediction and optimisation of advanced first-wall fusion materials – $1,400,000 – PA Burr.
ARC Linkage Project LP220100031 – Advanced shield materials for compact fusion energy – $1,024,000 – PA Burr, EG Obbard, B Gludovatz, K Laws.
USA Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and CSIRO – Advanced reactor impact not he back end of the nuclear fuel cycle – $100,400 – PA Burr.
Tokamak Energy (UK), Accelerating the development of shielding materials for spherical Tokamaks – $636,000 – PA Burr, EG Obbard.
Australian Research Council, Discovery Project DP170103219 – Advanced electrochemical capacitors – $270,000 – A Lennon, Z Ouyang, PA Burr.
Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB Industry sponsorship – $66,000 – PA Burr.
$330,000 in-kind computational resources through national merit allocation schemes.
$405,000 in-kind access to Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS).
UNSW Research infrastructure scheme – $64,750.

Named Partner Investigator

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning), SUNRISE project (Sustainable Nuclear energy Research In Sweden) – SEK 50,000,000 (AUD $7,800,000).
EPSRC responsive mode grant (2017-2020) – £665,000 (AUD $1,200,000).
EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (2019-2024) – £5,900,000 (AUD $10,600,000).

My Qualifications

PhD in computational materials for fission and fusion applications, Imperial College London, UK, 2015.
MEng (Hons) in Material Science, First Class, Imperial College London, UK. Specialising in energy, nano- and bio-materials.

My Awards

ARC mid-career industry fellowship for ‘Life prediction and optimisation of advanced first-wall fusion materials’. Read the UNSW announcement.

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

Areas of supervision

PhD projects are currently available on the following topics (and a few more). Local candidates and outstanding international candidates and encouraged to contact me for further details.

Hydrogen storage materials: bridging the gab between simulations and experiments
Accelerating fusion energy: new shielding materials for extreme environments
Atomic-scale simulations of novel nuclear materials

Full list of research topics here: www.patrickburr.com/research/

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