Jasmina Vujic
· ProfessorVerifiedUniversity of California, Berkeley · Nuclear Engineering
Active 1989–2025
About
Professor Jasmina Vujic is a Full Professor at the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley and has served as the department's Chair. She earned her M.S. in 1987 and Ph.D. in 1989 in Nuclear Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After completing her doctoral studies, she worked at Argonne National Laboratory in the Reactor Analysis Division for three years before joining UC Berkeley's faculty in 1992. She has held several leadership roles, including Chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering from 2005 to 2009 and chairing the U.S. Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization (NEDHO) in 2009/2010. Professor Vujic directed an interdepartmental computing facility supporting research and teaching at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering and served as the Director of the Berkeley Nuclear Research Center (BNRC) from 2009 to 2014. She is the founding director and Principal Investigator of the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC), funded by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration since 2011. The NSSC fosters collaborative research among multiple universities and national laboratories, providing hands-on training in nuclear science, technology, and policy to students and postdoctoral scholars. Professor Vujic has authored nearly 300 technical publications, including over 80 in leading journals, and has written three books and edited several monographs and conference proceedings. She has given over 150 invited presentations across nearly 20 countries. Under her mentorship, numerous students have earned their Ph.D. and M.S. degrees. Her research expertise encompasses nuclear reactor analysis and design, numerical methods in reactor core analysis, high-performance computing, biomedical applications of radiation, and nuclear security and nonproliferation. She has attracted significant research funding, establishing research centers and leading large-scale projects. Professor Vujic is recognized internationally as an expert in nuclear science and technology, serving on various advisory boards and nuclear reactor safety panels. She is a member of professional societies including the American Nuclear Society, IEEE, and the American Health Physics Society, and has held various leadership roles within these organizations. Her numerous awards include the Prytanean Faculty Award from UC Berkeley and the Exceptional Performance Award from Argonne National Laboratory. She was elected Fellow of the American Nuclear Society in 2018.
Research topics
- Chemistry
- Radiochemistry
- Nuclear chemistry
- Chromatography
- Physics
- Organic chemistry
- Inorganic chemistry
- Materials science
- Atomic physics
- Nuclear physics
Selected publications
A Hybrid Second Moment Method for Thermal Radiative Transfer
2025-01-01
articleOpen accessSenior authorPhysical review. C · 2024-05-06 · 8 citations
articleOpen accessThis work presents the first experimentally determined nuclear level density and $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray strength function of the short-lived fission product $^{93}\mathrm{Sr}$, accomplished using the $\ensuremath{\beta}$-Oslo method. Direct measurement of the $^{92}\mathrm{Sr}(n,\ensuremath{\gamma})^{93}\mathrm{Sr}$ cross section is not currently possible, as the half-life of 2.66 hours is too short; instead, $^{93}\mathrm{Sr}$ was formed through $\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay of $^{93}\mathrm{Rb}$ to excitation energies around the neutron separation energy. The $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray spectra were measured using a total absorption spectrometer at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU). The statistical properties of the $^{93}\mathrm{Sr}$ nucleus were experimentally determined, including the $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray strength function and nuclear level density. At low energies, the $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray strength function exhibits a constant $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-decay strength, rather than a slightly increasing strength with decreasing $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray energy as had been previously observed for several nuclei in this mid-mass region. These statistical properties were then implemented in the reaction code talys1.95 to calculate the $^{92}\mathrm{Sr}(n,\ensuremath{\gamma})^{93}\mathrm{Sr}$ cross section.
Nuclear Power in the Twenty-First Century? – A Personal View
Women in engineering and science · 2023-01-01
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingNeutron transport analysis for nuclear reactor design
OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2023-01-23 · 1 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingReplacing regular mesh-dependent ray tracing modules in a collision/transfer probability (CTP) code with a ray tracing module based upon combinatorial geometry of a modified geometrical module (GMC) provides a general geometry transfer theory code in two dimensions (2D) for analyzing nuclear reactor design and control. The primary modification of the GMC module involves generation of a fixed inner frame and a rotating outer frame, where the inner frame contains all reactor regions of interest, e.g., part of a reactor assembly, an assembly, or several assemblies, and the outer frame, with a set of parallel equidistant rays (lines) attached to it, rotates around the inner frame. The modified GMC module allows for determining for each parallel ray (line), the intersections with zone boundaries, the path length between the intersections, the total number of zones on a track, the zone and medium numbers, and the intersections with the outer surface, which parameters may be used in the CTP code to calculate collision/transfer probability and cross-section values.
2021-01-01 · 2 citations
articleOpen accessSenior authorExtraction of radium and actinium with Pb resin and Rose Bengal
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry · 2021 · 3 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Chemistry
- Radiochemistry
- Chromatography
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry · 2021 · 9 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Chemistry
- Radiochemistry
- Inorganic chemistry
Physical review. C · 2021 · 3 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Physics
- Atomic physics
- Nuclear physics
Background: Actinium-225 is of interest for medical isotope production and there is on-going research into methods of producing $^{225}\mathrm{Ac}$, either directly or via the decay of its parent isotopes ($^{229}\mathrm{Th}, ^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$, and $^{225}\mathrm{Ra}$). One method that has been suggested is the $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,2n)^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ reaction. However, there is no available cross-section data for this reaction in the literature.Purpose: Measure the $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,2n)$ and $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,3n)$ reaction cross sections in the energy range where the $(p,2n)$ reaction is predicted to peak to determine the feasibility of $^{225}\mathrm{Ac}$ production via the $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,2n)$ reaction.Methods: Targets naturally enriched in $^{230}\mathrm{Th}$ were irradiated at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with energies ranging from 14.1 to 16.9 MeV. Chemical processing was used to separate the protactinium activation products, followed by $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray spectroscopy to measure the activities of $^{228,229,230,232}\mathrm{Pa}$ produced in the irradiation.Results: Excitation functions are reported for the first time in the literature for the $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,2n)$ and $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,3n)$ reactions in this energy range. The peak measured value of the $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,2n)$ reaction was found to be $182\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}12$ mb at $14.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1$ MeV. The $^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,n)^{232}\mathrm{Pa}$ reaction was used to verify the experimental conditions, the measured values are reported and are comparable to the existing literature values. From the $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray spectrometry data, the half-life of $^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ was measured as $1.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1$ days, which is within the error of the half-life reported in the evaluated nuclear data as well as in the recent measurements, and the half-life of $^{228}\mathrm{Pa}$ was measured as $19.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4$ hours.Conclusions: The $^{230}\mathrm{Th}(p,2n)^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ reaction could reasonably be used for $^{225}\mathrm{Ac}$ isotope production, although significant amounts of relatively isotopically pure $^{230}\mathrm{Th}$ would be needed for significant production because the low alpha-decay branching ratio of $^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ and long half-life of $^{229}\mathrm{Th}$ inhibit the in-growth of significant amounts of $^{225}\mathrm{Ac}$.
Nuclear Science and Engineering · 2020-07-07
preprintOpen accessWe report here the results of a measurement of the scattered versus unscattered neutron fluence on polyethylene determined via neutron activation of multiple natural indium foils from a deuterium-deuterium (D-D) neutron generator. The neutrons were produced by the High Flux Neutron Generator (HFNG) at the University of California, Berkeley, a specially designed source to maximize neutron flux on a sample while minimizing the total neutron yield. During the experiment, approximately 108 n/s were produced with the energies at the indium foils ranging from 2.2 to 2.8 MeV. Both the angle-integrated and the partial angle differential results are consistent with the predictions of the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport (MCNP) code, using ENDF/B-VII.1. This supports shielding calculations in the fast energy region with high-density polyethylene.
arXiv (Cornell University) · 2020-02-11
preprintOpen accessThe Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California Berkeley\nbuilt a D-D neutron generator called the High Flux Neutron Generator (HFNG). It\noperates in the range of 100-125 keV of accelerating voltage. The generator\nproduces neutron current of about 10^8 per second. These neutrons have energies\nbetween 2.2-2.8 MeV. We report here the results of a measurement of the\nscattered vs unscattered neutron fluence on polyethylene determined via neutron\nactivation of multiple natural indium foils from a D-D neutron generator. Both\nthe angle-integrated spectrum and the angle differential results are consistent\nwith the predictions of the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport (MCNP) code, using\nthe ENDF/B-VII.1. This supports shielding calculations in the fast energy\nregion with high density polyethylene (HDPE). To the best of our knowledge no\nintegral benchmark experiment has been performed on polyethylene using\nD(D,n)alpha neutron spectrum.\n
Frequent coauthors
- 46 shared
K. N. Leung
- 39 shared
Michael D. Williams
- 36 shared
Richard Gough
- 28 shared
W. B. Kunkel
- 24 shared
L. A. Bernstein
University of California, Berkeley
- 23 shared
D. L. Bleuel
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- 22 shared
M. Kireeff Covo
- 20 shared
D. Wutte
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Awards & honors
- Prytanean Faculty Award from UC Berkeley
- Exceptional Performance Award from Argonne National Laborato…
- Elected as an international member of the Academy of Enginee…
- Elected as a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of t…
- Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (2018)
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