Abstract
The key to developing advanced materials for nuclear applications is in understanding the interplay between the various physical scales present, from atomic level interactions, to microstructural composition and macroscale behavior. Defect mechanisms at the atomic scale determine the microstructure and ultimately, a whole host of macroscopic properties. I investigate structure-property-processing relationships that are at the core of technologically relevant problems in nuclear engineering and materials science. I examine how defects behave in nuclear fuel and structures under ambient and radiation damage environments representative of fission and fusion reactor conditions. Nuclear fuels of interest are UO2, ThO2 as well as metallic U-Zr fuels. Structural materials of interest are iron based alloys where irradiation produced defects interact with the underlying microstructure such as screw and edge dislocations. The emphasis is on identifying defect mechanisms that affect macroscopic properties of the fuel/structure materials. These studies aim to provide a science based understanding of fuel and structural materials for the development of a new generation of nuclear reactor systems. 

Brief Biography
Dr. Deo is an Assistant Professor of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Materials Science and Technology Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2000 and 2003 respectively that included research experience at Princeton University (Mechanical Engineering), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. Research interests include studying structure property relationships in nuclear materials using theory and simulations across electronic, atomic, mesoscopic and continuum scales, radiation effects in materials for nuclear energy including structural materials and nuclear fuels identifying atomic mechanisms in defect mobility.