The Belgian Nuclear Society's Master Thesis Contest – 2010

Since 2004, the Belgian Nuclear Society has organised, with the dynamic support of the Young Generation Network (YGN), a contest for the best Master’s thesis of each academic year. Its objective is to encourage young people to enter the fascinating world of nuclear science. Naturally, the thesis must be on a nuclear subject – in the broadest sense of the word. This year, the scope of the submitted theses was broad – with topics ranging from industry and engineering-related subjects to scientific research.

For each submitted thesis a “reading committee” made up of several BNS-YGN volunteers evaluated each submitted thesis in accordance with a number of previously agreed criteria. These included the following: Is the thesis clearly linked to and relevant to a nuclear subject? Is it innovative? Does it have clearly defined objectives, and does it achieve them? Has the subject been approached with creativity and innovation? Last, but not least, the evaluation of each thesis also involved the judgement of an expert in each chosen field.

Three short-listed theses were selected for the Masters Thesis Final. The final selection and prize-giving took place on February 25, 2010, during a BNS Evening Lecture. The three finalists, Robin Cuypers, Jytte Elseviers and Guillaume Pochet, presented their Master’s thesis. The jury was impressed with the quality of each presentation, but only one candidate could win the prize. After careful consideration, Jytte Elseviers was declared the winner, for her work entitled "Electron Capture Delayed Fission of Tl-180". Guillaume Pochet won the “public's prize” for his work "CFD Study of the Flow Mixing in the Downcomer and Lower Plenum of PWRs". The prize-giving was followed by a cocktail in the Tractebel Engineering Forum, and a dinner in which the three finalists, the jury and the reading committee took part.

The deadline to receive candidate theses for the 2011 prize is 30 October 2010.

More information is available at: www.bnsorg.be > Activities > Thesis Contest