About

Assel Aitkaliyeva is an Associate Professor at the Department of Materials Science & Engineering. Her research interests include nuclear fuels and materials, with an emphasis on characterization and property evaluation; mechanical and thermal properties of materials; reactor irradiation; radiation damage in materials; ion implantation; kinetics; composites; nanostructured materials; and multi-scale simulation of nuclear fuel. She is involved with the Materials for Nuclear Advancement and Technology in Extreme Environments (MANATEE) Group, focusing on advanced materials for nuclear applications and materials in extreme environments.

Research topics

• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Physics
• Environmental science
• Metallurgy
• Geology
• Astronomy
• Electrical engineering
• Process engineering
• Astrobiology
• Optoelectronics
• Nuclear engineering
• Optics
• Engineering physics
• Composite material
• Aerospace engineering
• Mechanical engineering

Selected publications

• Plutonium migration and phase evolution in irradiated U-Pu-Zr metallic fuels: An integrated EPMA-SEM-TEM study

  Journal of Nuclear Materials · 2026-04-12

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Elucidating the effect of minor-actinide addition on fuel-cladding chemical interaction in an HT-9 clad U-Pu-Zr metallic fuel irradiated to 6.15 at.% burnup in EBR-II

  Journal of Nuclear Materials · 2025-08-07 · 2 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Comparative post-irradiation examination of high burnup U-19Pu-10Zr: Assessing steady-state irradiation behavior against historical and modeled fuel performance

  Journal of Nuclear Materials · 2025-03-28 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• TEM characterization of two variants of fuel cladding chemical interaction in a HT-9 Clad U-10Zr Fuel. Variant 1: FCCI with a Zr Rind

  Journal of Nuclear Materials · 2025-05-21 · 3 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Atomic-Scale Exciton Binding Energy Determination of Defected Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

  Microscopy and Microanalysis · 2025-07-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• THE CURRENT STATE OF ZOOPLANKTON STRUCTURE OF LAKE ALAKOL (BALKHASH-ALAKOL BASIN)

  Ġylym ža̋ne bìlìm · 2025-09-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The topicality of the study lies in the high natural and economic significance of Lake Alakol, as well as the increasing anthropogenic load affecting its ecological state. Monitoring zooplankton structural variables is important because structure alterations often reflect the general ecological state of the waterbody, including the degree of eutrophication, the level of anthropogenic load, and the stability of ecosystem processes. It is necessary to obtain preliminary information on the current state of zooplankton communities to ensure the informativeness and objectivity of monitoring. Therefore, the first and essential stage is the study of the dynamics of key structural variables. This is the primary goal of this study. Archival data from LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center» were used to analyze the taxonomic composition, abundance, biomass, and Shannon index for the period 2020-2024. The latter was collected during the calculations for the fish food supply and during the preparation of biological justifications. The similarity of the taxonomic composition of zooplankton in different years was assessed by using Bray-Curtis cluster analysis. High taxonomic diversity (94 taxa) was recorded. Cluster analysis revealed interannual differences in zooplankton taxonomic composition with stability within the year. Significant changes were recorded in 2024. The environmental factors should be the reasonfor these alterations. Interannual alterations in abundance and biomass and the Shannon index in 2024 are probably associated with trophic factors. Rotifers, cladocerans, and copepods were the dominants. It was revealed that the structure of zooplankton is formed under the influence of natural (seasonal temperature fluctuations) and external factors, including trophic ones. The stability of communities is ensured by eurythermal and ecologically plastic species

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Defining the relative proton irradiation hardness of β-Ga2O3

  Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A Vacuum Surfaces and Films · 2025-05-12 · 3 citations

  article

  The correlation between the carrier removal rate (CRR) in n-type Ga2O3 and the nonionizing energy loss (NIEL) by MeV protons during irradiation of rectifier structures is reported. A dependence of CRR = 7 × 10−14 (n0 × NIEL) + 18.7 is found, where n0 is the drift layer doping. The critical proton fluence at which the drift layer doping would be fully compensated by acceptor traps created by the NIEL in Ga2O3 is ΦCR (Ga2O3) = 6 × 10−4 (n0/NIEL) + 5 × 1013 cm−2. A comparison with SiC irradiated under similar conditions shows the Ga2O3 to have a higher critical fluence.

  PublisherDOI

• Predicting U3O8 Powder Processing Conditions: an AI/ML approach analyzing Deep Learning Embeddings of SEM Micrographs

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Elucidating the Effect of Minor-Actinide Addition on Fuel-Cladding Chemical Interaction in an Ht-9 Clad U-Pu-Zr Metallic Fuel Irradiated to 6.15 At.% Burnup

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Spin-Crossover Solids as Phase-Change Materials to Actuate Strain in 2D MoS₂

  Chemistry of Materials · 2024-09-12

  articleCorresponding

  Spin-crossover (SCO) transitions in complexes or nanoparticles coupled to two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphite and metal dichalcogenides, can alter the electronic or optical response of 2D nanosheets. However, the mechanism by which the spin transition tunes the properties of the 2D materials remains unclear. Herein, we describe two 2D/3D heterostructures combining electrochemically exfoliated molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and spin transition crystals Fe(2-pytrz)2Pd(CN)4·3H2O (2-pytrz = 4-(2-pyridyl)-4H-1,2,4-triazole) and Fe(pz)Pd(CN)4) (pz = pyrazine), unambiguously demonstrating how spin crossover induces strain in 2D materials leading to altered properties. In both the MoS2-Fe(2-pytrz)2Pd(CN)4·3H2O and MoS2-Fe(pz)Pd(CN)4 heterostructures, the MoS2 photoluminescence emission energy shifted in response to the spin-crossover phase transition of the spin-transition crystal substrates. Importantly, the Raman shifts corresponding to the A1g in-plane and E2g out-of-plane MoS2 vibrational modes also correlate with the substrate spin crossover, providing direct evidence of the induced strain. Both the Raman shifts and photoluminescence changes of MoS2 correspond to compressive strain, estimated to be 0.5% for the MoS2-Fe(2-pytrz)2Pd(CN)4·3H2O and 0.4% for the MoS2-Fe(pz)Pd(CN)4 heterostructure. These examples demonstrate the viability of using spin-transition solids as phase-change mechanical actuators for the switching properties of 2D materials.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kory Burns

  University of Virginia

  70 shared

• Khalid Hattar

  University of Tennessee at Knoxville

  65 shared

• Eric Lang

  University of New Mexico

  59 shared

• Rajiv K. Kalia

  University of Southern California

  51 shared

• Aiichiro Nakano

  University of Southern California

  51 shared

• Nitish Baradwaj

  University of Southern California

  51 shared

• Anikeya Aditya

  University of Southern California

  51 shared

• Ankit Mishra

  University of Southern California

  51 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Nuclear Fuels and Materials

  Texas A&M University

  2012