Michael Short
Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering
- MIT
Professor Michael Short joined MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering in 2001 as a 1st year UROP student and never left. He and his group have spent 22 years studying coupled effects and challenges facing materials for nuclear power, for both fission and fusion, and have made surprising discoveries ranging from radiation decelerated corrosion in molten salts to direct measurement of stored energy of radiation damage, to methods for detecting historical uranium enrichment for non-proliferation treaty verification.
His groups work on rapid methods for the assessment of nuclear material health and safety, on the basic science underpinning how radiation damage changes materials, and practical applications for making nuclear power safer by better knowledge and prediction of material properties.
Mike is also the Associate Director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), and the Class of 1942 Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering.