Firas Abdullatif
Blacklick,OH
Summary
Nuclear engineer with a Ph.D. and 5+ years of combined industry and research experience in reactor core design, Monte Carlo neutron transport, and safety analysis. Designed and authored licensing-basis analyses for a commercial micro-reactor dry critical experiment. Developed novel computational methods for reactor transient simulation published in leading international journals and conferences. Fluent in Serpent 2, OpenMC, and Python; experienced with HPC environments and regulatory-grade documentation.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Nuclear Engineer
Aalo Atomics
Austin, TX
05.2025 - Current
- Reactor core design and safety analysis of Aalo-X reactor.
- Manager: Yasir Arafat
Graduate Fellow & Research Associate
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
08.2019 - 06.2024
- Thesis: “Development of An Advanced Multilevel Quasi-Static Kinetic Monte Carlo Module for Transient Simulations.”
- Evaluated Monte Carlo transient methods against the C5G7 benchmark.
- Implementation of adjoint flux calculation capabilities in Monte Carlo transport for transient simulations.
- Methods development for a time dependent Monte Carlo neutron transport code. Partially funded by NASA’s Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Rocket project.
- Implementation and performance investigation of nonlinear diffusion acceleration schemes for Monte Carlo neutron transport codes.
- Development of a refueling and fuel shuffling toolkit for Serpent 2.
- FHR core design and neutronics analysis using Serpent, joint project funded by DOE.
- Advisor: Dr. Dean Wang
Research Aide, Intern
Argonne National Lab
Lemont, IL
05.2022 - 08.2022
- Tested and evaluated numerical methods and their implementation for the Nuclear Science Engineering (NSE) Division.
- Verified Griffin’s hybrid finite element method (HFEM), discontinuity factor (DF), and pin power (PP) reconstruction capabilities against Serpent 2 using benchmark reactor core designs, including ABTR, C5G7, and EMPIRE.
- Manager: Dr. Changho Lee
Student Researcher
Center for Manufacturing and Design Excellence
Columbus, OH
12.2018 - 08.2019
- Designed and fabricated components for work-study projects at the Ohio State University Center for Manufacturing and Design Excellence (CMDE) using CNC machines and 3D printers.
Intern
Thermo L.L.C.
Dubai, U.A.E
05.2016 - 07.2016
- Collaborated with HVAC design and procurement teams to produce CAD drawings and quantity takeoff sheets.
Education
Ph.D. - Nuclear Engineering
Ohio State University
01-2024
B.Sc. - Mechanical Engineering
Ohio State University
01-2019
Skills
- Monte Carlo Neutron Transport Calculations
- Computational Methods Development
- Reactor Dynamics Analysis
- Nuclear Reactor Design
- Nuclear Simulation Tools: Serpent 2, OPENMC
- Software development
- Reactor Multi-physics
- Programming: Python, C, C, MATLAB
- Other Engineering tools: ANSYS FLUENT, AUTOCAD, SOLIDWORKS
- Reactor physics
Certification
- NASA Student Liaison, Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space 2022
- NRC Graduate Fellow, Ohio State University 2019-2022
- Dassault Systems Associate Certificate, Ohio State University 2019
- Ohio State Fundamentals of Engineering Honors, Ohio State University 2015
Timeline
Nuclear Engineer
Aalo Atomics
05.2025 - Current
Research Aide, Intern
Argonne National Lab
05.2022 - 08.2022
Graduate Fellow & Research Associate
Ohio State University
08.2019 - 06.2024
Student Researcher
Center for Manufacturing and Design Excellence
12.2018 - 08.2019
Intern
Thermo L.L.C.
05.2016 - 07.2016
B.Sc. - Mechanical Engineering
Ohio State University
Ph.D. - Nuclear Engineering
Ohio State University
PUBLICATIONS
- D. Wang, F. Abdullatif, "Neutron Transport Problems with Nonlinear Temperature Feedback," M&C2021, Raleigh, NC, April 11-15, 2021.
- F. Abdullatif, D. Wang, “O-SRS: A Refueling and Shuffling Toolkit for Serpent Core Neutronics Analysis,” ANS 2021, Virtual, June 14-16, 2021.
- F. Abdullatif, D. Wang, "Acceleration of Source Convergence in Monte Carlo Criticality Calculation with CMFD Schemes," PHYSOR 2022, Pittsburgh, PA, May 15–20, 2022.
- F. Abdullatif, D. Wang, "A Multilevel Quasi-Static Kinetics Module for Monte Carlo Simulations," ANS 2023, Indianapolis, IN, June 11-14, 2023.
- F. Abdullatif, D. Wang, "Implementation and Assessment of the Crank-Nicolson Method for the Monte Carlo Multilevel Kinetics Module," International Conference on Physics of Reactors (PHYSOR 2024), San Francisco, CA, April 21–24, 2024.
- F. Abdullatif, Wang, " An Advanced Multilevel Quasi-Static Kinetics Module for Monte Carlo Transient Simulations," submitted for review, Nucl. Sci. Eng. Journal.
- ANS 2021 Virtual Conference, F. Abdullatif, “O-SRS: A Refueling and Shuffling Toolkit for Serpent Core Neutronics Analysis”.
- PHYSOR 2022 International Conference, Pittsburgh, F. Abdullatif “Acceleration of Source Convergence in Monte Carlo Criticality Calculation with CMFD Schemes”.
- ANS 2023 Annual Conference, Indianapolis, F. Abdullatif “ A Multilevel Quasi-Static Kinetics Module for Monte Carlo Simulations”.
- PHYSOR 2024 International Conference, San Francisco, F. Abdullatif, “Implementation and Assessment of the Crank-Nicolson Method for the Monte Carlo Multilevel Kinetics Module”.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
§ ANS 2021 Virtual Conference, F. Abdullatif, “O-SRS: A Refueling and Shuffling Toolkit for Serpent Core Neutronics Analysis".
§ PHYSOR 2022 International Conference, Pittsburgh, F. Abdullatif "Acceleration of Source Convergence in Monte Carlo Criticality Calculation with CMFD Schemes”.
§ ANS 2023 Annual Conference, Indianapolis, F. Abdullatif " A Multilevel Quasi-Static Kinetics Module for Monte Carlo Simulations”.
§ PHYSOR 2024 International Conference, San Francisco, F. Abdullatif, “Implementation and Assessment of the Crank-Nicolson Method for the Monte Carlo Multilevel Kinetics Module".