Dr. Cameron Howard is a post-irradiation experimentation instrument and research scientist at Idaho National Laboratory, where he mainly works on advanced focused ion beam (FIB) techniques used to perform small scale mechanical testing and link the mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms of as fabricated and neutron irradiated nuclear fuels and structural materials. He is a senior researcher in the advanced characterization SEM/FIB group, a team that performs mission work for industry (Westinghouse, NATRIUM, GE), many DOE programs (AGR, AFC, NSUF) and the LDRD office.

With 7+ years of experience in nuclear materials research, Dr. Howard possesses expertise in advanced characterization of activated nuclear materials using SEM and FIB techniques including SE and BSE montage imaging, EDS, EBSD, 3D slice and view tomography, SEM/FIB TOF-SIMS, and design and execution of in-situ SEM small-scale mechanical testing to represent in-service stress states and extract local mechanical properties of irradiated materials, interfaces, and regions of interest that would not be accessible via conventional bulk mechanical testing. Mechanical tests include but are not limited to nanoindentation, compression, tensile, creep, and low cycle fatigue. 

His academic background includes a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of California Berkeley under the advisership of Prof. Peter Hosemann. He was previously a staff scientist at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories from 2018-2020, specializing in commercial research for the Fuel Channel Life Management Program funded by the CANDU Owners Group.

He has approximately 43 scientific publications with over 470 citations, and 18 invited and contributed talks at research conferences and technical meetings.

radiation damage effects, scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beams, small scale mechanical testing, mechanical properties, deformation mechanisms, high burnup structure, nuclear fuel, nuclear structural materials