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Mohamed S. El-Genk
Regents' Professor and ISNPS Director
Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies
MSC01-1120, FEC 237
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Phone: 505.277.5442
Fax: 505.277.2814
mgenk@unm.edu
 Mohamed S. El-Genk is Regents' Professor of Chemical, Nuclear, and Mechanical Engineering and the founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies at University of New Mexico (UNM). His experience and research interests include boiling heat transfer and two-phase flow; convection heat transfer, space nuclear power and propulsion, advanced energy systems; thermal management; heat rejection radiators; heat pipes and thernosyphons; submersion cooling of high power electronics; fluid flow and heat transfer in micro-channels; static and dynamic energy conversion including thermoelectric, thermionic, gas turbo-machines for Closed Brayton Cycles, and Alkali-metal thermal-to-electric conversion; nuclear fuel and high temperature materials; radiation shielding of solar energetic protons; nuclear fuel cycle; design and analysis of space reactors and systems for electrical power generation and nuclear thermal propulsion; and thermal-hydraulics, neutronics, and safety analysis of terrestrial reactors, including light water, sodium cooled, and high temperature gas cooled reactors. He has 13 years experience in energy industry and research in areas of energy storage and generation systems, boiling heat transfer, and nuclear reactors analyses and safety.
In 1978 - 1981, he worked as a member of the technical staff at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and acquired much experience in the behavior of Light Water Reactors (LWRs) and Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) fuel during nominal operation and accident conditions. His research at INL included post-irradiation examination of UO2 fuel and the development of phenomenological models. In addition, he performed analyses of Molten Fuel Coolant Interaction (MFCI) during a Reactivity Initiated Accident in-pile test and of molten fuel relocation and interaction with ziracloy cladding during Power-Coolant Mismatch in-pile tests preformed in the Power Burst Facility at INL. He has led the effort to include UNM in the National University Consortium (NUC), a part of the Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) that is currently operating INL for DOE. Other members of the NUC include MIT, and North Carolina State, Ohio State, and Oregon State Universities. He is currently a member of the planning committee of the Center for Space Nuclear Research at INL.
After joining UNM in 1981, El-Genk continued his research on nuclear fuel, MFCI, and fission gas release with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The emphases were on (U,Pu)C fuel irradiated in the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-II) in Idaho Falls, ID. He started a multi-year research program jointly with Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and General Atomics (GA) to construct small scale thermal-hydraulic facility at UNM. Together with members of his thermal-hydraulics research team, that included 3 graduate students and visiting professor, performed single-rod Critical Heat Flux (CHF) experiments. His research team also conducted natural and combined convection and forced laminar and turbulent convection experiments using multi-rod bundles with square and triangle lattices and different P/D ratios. The developed correlations supported SNL proposal to the US Department of Energy (DOE) to upgrade and double the power of the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR). Results also supported the development of 10 - 30 MW TRIGA type research reactors at GA. The developed combined convection correlations are applicable to cooling LWRs following a partial loss of flow or small-break LOCA, such as in TMI accident in 1979. El-Genk's collaboration with SNL also included LWRs severe accident analyses, and recently focused on thermal-hydraulics and enhanced mixing in the lower plenum of Gen-IV very high temperature reactor (VHTR) for electricity generation and co-generation of hydrogen.
In 1984, El-Genk founded the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS) at UNM to fund graduate students and conduct collaborative research with industry, NASA centers, and DOE laboratories. During the last 25 years, the UNM-ISNPS (http://www.unm.edu/~ISNPS/) had a visible role in supporting the national effort to develop space nuclear power systems. In early nineties, El-Genk contributed to the establishment of the Thermionic Alliance (TIA) that included SNL, LANL, the
Air Force Research Laboratory, UNM, the Russian Federation, Great Britain, and France. The alliance established a national test facility at UNM to conduct joint research on the Russian's TOPAZ-II space reactor. This effort provided unique opportunities for faculty and students to participate in research on TI conversion and testing and evaluation of integrated space reactor power systems. He had also developed collaboration agreements between UNM and leading laboratories in Belgium, Germany, Egypt, and the Russian Federation.
El-Genk has established an endowment at the UNM foundation with current balance exceeding $2.5M to support research at UNM-ISNPS. He developed and served as the Faculty Advisor of the New Mexico One fellowship program funded by DOE. This program contributed to increasing the undergraduate student enrollment in nuclear engineering by more than 300% since 2001, with > 40% females and underrepresented minorities. The GPA of the graduating seniors during the last 5 years averaged ~ 3.4, and more than 90% graduated within 3 years after completing the freshman year.
At UNM, El-Genk developed and taught courses on reactor thermal-hydraulics, space nuclear power and propulsion, nuclear fuel cycle and materials, experimental methods, reactor design and safety, advanced transport phenomena, and heat pipes and energy conversion. In 2001, he was named 46th Annual Research Lecturer, the highest honor bestowed upon a member of the faculty at UNM (2001) and awarded the rank of Regents' Professor in 1996. In 1988, he was the recipient of the Graduate Students' Outstanding Teacher Award, the School of Engineering Research Excellence Award in 1988 and the Teaching Excellence Award in 1989. In 1996, he received the Student's Faculty Recognition Award. El-Genk has supervised 25 Masters Theses and 26 Doctoral Dissertations since joining UNM in 1981.
El-Genk published more than 600 papers and technical reports including more than 250 referred articles and 240 full articles in Proceedings; a book, "A Critical Review of Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion Systems 1984-1993," and more than fifty Proceedings volumes with more than 5,000 full articles in various field of heat transfer, natural convection, energy conversion, thermal management, nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics and Safety, boiling heat transfer and two-phase flow, heat pipes, thermo-physics in micro-gravity, interfacial phenomena, immersion cooling of electronics, and space nuclear power and propulsion.
El-Genk is a member of the Scientific Council of International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer; Organizing Committee of 14th International Heat Transfer Conference, Washington DC, 2010; Academic Committee of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS); Program Committee of 3rd Conference of IAASS, Rome, Italy, 21 - 23 October 2008; International Scientific Advisory Committee of 2nd International Conference on Energy and Sustainability (Energy¬2009), Bologna, Italy, 23-25 June 2009; Editorial Board of Journal of Energy Conversion and Management. He is area Editor of the International Journal of Energy Conversion and Management and a life member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
El-Genk is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Nuclear Society (ANS), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety; and an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He is the recipient of the ANS Distinguished Faculty Member Honor award in 1987 and the AIChE Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion Division Award in 2000. He served on the NASA Space Exploration of the Solar System Technology Assessment Group, 2001 - 2002 and the NASA Advanced Radioisotope System (ARPS) Team - 2001 Technology Assessment and Recommended Roadmap for Potential NASA Code S Missions Beyond 2011, 2000 - 2001.
He received the United States Department of Energy's Certificate of Appreciation for his Outstanding Contribution to the field of Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion in 1992, chaired the
ASME/AIChE Board of the prestigious Max Jacob Memorial Award for outstanding advances in heat transfer and served on and chaired the AIChE Committee of the Donald Q. Kern Award for advances in practical applications of heat and mass transfer.
El-Genk contributed to the organization and the technical program of many national and international conferences. He has been the primary organizer and the technical and publication chair of the annual Symposium on Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion (1984 - 1993), and the Space Technology and Applications International Forum -STAIF (1994 - 2008). He organized and participated in numerous short courses in various areas of heat pipes, thermal management, and space nuclear power and propulsion, attended by more than 600 individuals from industry, academia and government.
 UNM 46th Annual Research Lecture Award
Publications
Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of New Mexico
Mechanical Engineering Department at University of New Mexico
School of Engineering at University of New Mexico
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