Akira Tokuhiro

Few people understand the complexity of analyzing a severe nuclear reactor accident and its environmental consequences better than international nuclear energy expert Dr. Akira Tokuhiro. His contributions to the American Nuclear Society’s President’s Committee on the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in Japan led him to co-author a book on the disaster. With an interest in big data analytics, he has been instrumental in guiding global nuclear energy design, engineering and safety research with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) support, and at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute. Appointed Dean of the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science, Dr. Tokuhiro brings over 20 years of diverse nuclear engineering experience in academia and industry to Ontario Tech. Most recently he served as Senior Principal Engineer of NuScale Power LLC, a nuclear energy startup company in Corvallis, Oregon, funded by the DOE and Fluor Corporation. In this role, he developed the technical basis of the Emergency Planning Zone of the NuScale Small Modular Reactor, which led the company to complete the first-ever submission of the Design Certification Application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) in January 2017. From 2007 to 2014, he served as Professor of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, and Director of the Nuclear Engineering Graduate Program at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Previously, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas; as well as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, and Director and USNRC Senior Reactor Operator of the research reactor at the University of Missouri in Rolla, Missouri. Dr. Tokuhiro has earned numerous awards for contributions to his field, and for his mentorship of graduate students. He holds great interest in developing computational methods and experimental validation of nuclear reactor accidents, and energy systems analysis. His research has been published in more than 150 journal and conference papers. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Engineering Physics) at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, then earned his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rochester in New York State. His interests shifted to nuclear energy and he returned to Purdue to obtain his Doctorate in Nuclear Engineering.

Filippo Genco

Dr. Genco joined the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science in January 2020 as Associate Teaching Professor. His previous academic experiences have been in Santiago, Chile at Adolfo Ibáñez University in quality of Assistant Professor and Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, in Abu Dhabi, capital of UAE and in USA, Indiana at Purdue University. Dr. Genco holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering (B.S & M.S.) from the Polytechnic of Bari, Italy and degrees in Aerospace Engineering (MS) and Nuclear Engineering (MS & PhD) from Purdue University. Dr. Genco is also a member of the American Nuclear Engineering Honor Society Alpha Nu Sigma and winner of the prestigious University of California Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation Summer fellowship. His expertise is in nuclear energy, advanced numerical methods applied to heat and mass transfer and energy conversion systems. Professor Genco’s research interests include nanostructure formation in materials under extreme conditions, intelligent systems applied to energy problems, power plants hybridizations and engineering education challenges in the 21st century.

Veronica Garea

Veronica Garea is a Nuclear Engineer (Instituto Balseiro, Argentina) and holds an MS in Math and a PhD in Engineering Physics (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA). She worked at INVAP as a safety, reliability and environmental impact specialist for complex technology systems, including nuclear facilities. She was the head of the Department of Safety and Environmental Impact at INVAP from its creation up to 2014. She is currently the President of Fundación INVAP and a member of a Board of Directors of INVAP. She has served as an expert consultant on international projects. Her current interests include the social licensing of nuclear projects in the framework of the climate crisis as well as gender diversity in the nuclear industry. She is a professor at Instituto Balseiro, a member of the gender and diversity advisory committee of the Argentine Science and Technology Ministry and the vice president of Women in Nuclear Argentina. Cf. https://win-global2022.com/program.html

Sama Bilbao y León

Sama Bilbao y León became the Director General of World Nuclear Association in October 2020.

Previously, and since June 2018, she was Head of the Division of Nuclear Technology Development and Economics at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. In her role at the NEA, she led a team of analysts responsible for providing Member Countries with authoritative studies in the intersection of technology, innovation and economics in support of their energy policy decision-making. Since January 2020, she was also Head of the Technical Secretariat for the Generation IV International Forum (GIF).

From 2011, she was the Director of Nuclear Engineering Programs and Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She was one of the key individuals involved in the creation and development of this thriving new Nuclear Engineering program. Sama was responsible for the academic and research aspects of the new VCU nuclear engineering program, including student and faculty recruitment, curriculum development, accreditation, funding, research collaborations, industrial partnerships, marketing, outreach, etc. She also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in areas such as thermal-hydraulics, heat transfer, multi-phase flow, nuclear reactor design, energy and environmental policy, economics of electricity production, etc. At VCU, she led an active research group including post-doctoral research associates, PhD, MS and undergraduate students, and was the principal investigator in several research and development, as well as educational grants, totalling about $4M.

At her departure from VCU in May 2018, Sama was also a member of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) National Accreditation Board, and the Chairman of the Board of the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC).

From 2008, Sama was the Technical Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Water Cooled Reactors Technology Development Unit and she was responsible for IAEA activities in support of the development and near term deployment of advanced water cooled reactors and their associated fuels.

From February 2001 until March 2008, Sama was a Nuclear Safety Analysis Engineer at Dominion Energy, where she worked on the development and licensing of new methodologies in core thermal-hydraulics and nuclear safety analysis in support of Dominion’s nuclear power stations.

Sama is one of the seven founders of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN), and served as Public Information Chair since its creation in 1999 until May 2005. Sama is also an active member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) since 1995, both nationally and locally (VCU student section and Virginia local section). Her dedication to spreading the good news about nuclear earned her the ANS 2002 Public Communications Award. In 2007 she received the NA-YGN Founder Award, the highest award given to an NA-YGN member, which rewards leadership, vision and dedication. In 2007, and again in 2010, Sama was elected to the national Board of Directors of the American Nuclear Society. In 2011, she received the ANS Mary Jane Oestmann Women’s Achievement Award. In 2014 she received an ANS Presidential Citation for her continuous dedication to ANS. In 2018 she was presented with the W. Reed Johnson Award for Extraordinary Contributions to the Virginia Section of the ANS. Sama is also a member of SNE, ASME, ASEE, SWE and WiN. Sama, who is originally from Spain, holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in Energy Technologies from the Polytechnic University of Madrid; a master's degree and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison; and an MBA from Averett University.