Mohamed S. El-Genk

Distinguished and Regents' Professor, Nuclear, Mechanical and Chemical & Biological Engineering and Founding Director, Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies
MSC01-1120, FEC 1120
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Phone: 505.277.5442
Fax: 505.277.2814
mgenk@unm.edu

Mohamed S. El-Genk, PhD, is founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies and Distinguished and Regents' Professor of Nuclear Engineering, with courtesy faculty appointment in Mechanical Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering Departments at the University of New Mexico (UNM). When joining UNM he had more than 13 years of research and industrial experience in energy systems, R&D and nuclear reactors safety and thermal hydraulics. His latest non-academic position prior to joining UNM was Engineering Specialist at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

El-Genk is a prolific scholar and author of more than 840 published referred journal and conference Proceedings articles, Transactions' summaries, technical reports, and 8 book chapters. In 1995, he published a book on space nuclear power entitled "A Critical Review of Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion 1984-1993," that is being used as a text at many universities and a reference by researchers and professionals.

He has 7 US patents to his credit and two pending, and four patent disclosures, published more than 400 referred journal articles, 270 full articles in conference Proceedings, 94 technical reports, 60 conference transactions, and eight book chapters. His published work is recognized and cited widely worldwide. He is included in the 2021 and 2022 listings of the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University. His current Google scholar record of total citations / since 2018 exceeds 10,700 / 4,200, h-index 49 / 32 and i10index 252 / 112.

El-Genk's Google Scholar

El-Genk's ResearchGate

El-Genk is the Editor of more than 50 book volumes containing more than 5,000 full-length technical papers and chapters on a wide range of technical areas. These include nuclear reactors design, safety and thermal-hydraulics, nuclear fuel and materials, modeling and simulation, static and dynamic energy conversion, nuclear thermal propulsion, boiling heat transfer and two-phase flow, space exploration, high-temperature materials, and space nuclear power systems. These book volumes documented worldwide, and national technical advances achieved through 2008 in areas of space nuclear power and propulsion and many related technical disciplines.

He is a recognized authority in technical areas of space nuclear power, radioisotope power systems, and thermal propulsion; design, neutronics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and thermal-hydraulics analyses of terrestrial small modular reactors and micro reactors for power generation and production of process heat; nuclear fuel, irradiation behavior and fission gas release; boiling heat transfer, two-phase flow and critical heat flux; natural, combined and turbulent convection of water and heavy and alkali liquid metals in multi-rod bundles; low and high temperatures heat pipes design and transient modeling and analyses including startup for frozen state; application of heat pipes in space nuclear power systems and terrestrial micro reactors; design and analysis of compact closed Brayton cycle energy conversion units; static energy conversion including thermoelectric, thermionic; alkali-metals thermal-to-electric conversion; and design development and performance analyses of light-weight heat pipes radiator modulars and panels with areal mass < 3.0 kg/m2 for waste heat rejection of nuclear reactor systems for planetary surface power and space exploration missions.

El-Genk's other technical and research areas of interest and expertise include nuclear reactor cybersecurity; molecular dynamic simulation of irradiation effects on materials; combined cycle energy conversion; immersion cooling of electronics; simulation and modeling of nuclear reactors and energy systems; flow and heat transfer in microchannels; design and analyses of miniature electromagnetic and axial flow mechanical pumps for circulating alkali and heavy (Pb and LBE) liquid metals; shielding of space energetic particles; nuclear reactors design-basis and severe accidents; molten fuel coolant Interaction (MFCI); nuclear fuel and high temperature materials; thermal-hydraulics and safety analyses of sodium fast reactors, light water reactors, and high temperature gas cooled reactors.

He is the recipient of numerous national awards and recognitions that include:

o Regents' Professor, one of the highest recognitions at UNM.

o Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty rank.

o Named 46th Annual Research Lecturer in 2021; one of the highest honors bestowed upon a member of the faculty.

o Teaching Excellence Award by the Engineering Alumni Club.

o Graduate Students' Outstanding Teacher Award, Nuclear Engineering.

o Students' Faculty Recognition Award, for having the greatest impact on the education of graduating seniors in Nuclear Engineering.

He organized and served as Technical and Publication Chair of the annual Symposium of space nuclear power and propulsion (1984-1994) and the space technology and applications international forum (1995 - 2008), attended annually by more than 500 national and international researchers, industry and government professionals, academicians, students. He delivered many keynotes and plenary talks, served on technical and scientific committees of many national and international conferences, and is the recipient of many best papers awards at numerous national and international technical conferences. El-Genk is:

o Member of Scientific Council of the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer.

o Member of Editorial Board, J. Nuclear Energy Science & Power Generation Technology.

o Member of Assembly of the International Heat Transfer Conference.

o Former member, Editorial Board of Frontiers in Heat Pipes Journal.

o Editor of the International Journal of Process Systems Engineering-Energy Systems.

o Former Associate Editor, ASME J. Thermal Sciences and Engineering.

o Former member, the IAASS Academic Committee.

o Regional Editor for the Proceedings of the International Heat Transfer Conference.

o Co-Chair, Regional Scientific Committee for USA, Mexico, and Central America.

o Former member, Editorial Board of J. Energy Conversion and Management.

o Former member and chair, ASME/AIChE Board of the prestigious Max Jacob Memorial Award in heat transfer.

o Former Chair, the Executive Committee of AIChE Transport and Energy Processes Division.

o Member, ANS Program Committee, 1997-1999.

o Member, ANS Nuclear Reactor Safety Program Committee, 1989-1996.

o Member, ANS Trinity Executive Committee, 1994-1996.

o Assistant Technical Program Chair, ANS Summer meeting, Reno, Nevada, 16-20 June 1996.

o Technical Program Chair, ANS Winter Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, Nov. 1997.

o Member of the Scientific and advisory committees of numerous international conferences and panelist at many international and national technical and topical conferences.

o Former member and Chair, AIChE Donald Q. Kern Award Committee.

o Former member and Chair, ASME/AIChE National Heat Transfer Conference Coordinating Committee.

o Chair, International Conference on Advances in Energy Systems & Environmental Engineering (ASEE17), Wroclaw, Poland, 2 - 5 July 2017.

o Former member and chair, the AIChE Executive Committees of the Heat Transfer, the Energy Conversion Division and the Transport and Energy Processes Division.

o Former member of NASA's Space Exploration of the Solar System Technology Assessment Group and the Advanced Radioisotope Power System (ARPS) Team Technology Assessment and Recommended Roadmap for Potential NASA Code S Missions Beyond 2011.

o Co-Editor, Space Nuclear Power Systems Book Series, Orbit Book Co., Malabar, FL, 1985-1990.

o Co-Editor, Proceedings Annual Symposium on Space Nuclear Power Systems, American institute of Physics, 1991-1993.

o Co-Editor, Natural Convection in Single and Two-Phase Book Volume, ASME, 1989.

o Co-Editor, Thermal-Hydraulics of Severe Accident Book Volume, ASME / AIChE, 1992.

o Editor, Proceedings Annual Symposium on Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion Systems, American Institute of Physics, 1994-1995.

o Editor, AIChE Symposium Series - Heat Transfer, 1994-1997. (https://www.thermalfluidscentral.org/journals/index.php/Heat_Pipes/pages/view/editors)

In 1989, El-Genk established the first academic and students exchange and research collaborative agreements between a US University (UNM) and peer institutions at the Russian Federation Republic after the end of Cold War. These institutions included the Research Center-Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow, the Moscow Aviation Institute; and the institute for Physics and Power Engineering in Obninsk, the Russian federation.

He is a founding member of the New Mexico Thermionics alliance that included founding members for Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico, US Air Force Phillips Laboratory (now is the Airforce Research Laboratory, AFRL), the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and France. The alliance conducted joint research on thermionic space nuclear power systems' technology and conducted integrated system testing at UNM's Research Park (1991-1996). In addition to the researchers from member organizations and countries, UNM faculty and students participated in the conducted research on thermionic conversion and space reactor power system testing and analyses.

In 2011, El-Genk was a visiting scholar and guest lecturer delivering a short course on "Nuclear Power Systems for Enabling Space Exploration and Human Outposts: Potential, History, Design, and Safety," at the European Space Agency's European Space Research and Technology Center, Noordwijk, Netherlands. He has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique's Nuclear Energy Center in Saclay, France, and the Belgian Nuclear Center in Mol, Von Karman Institute in Brussels, Belgium, Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (KFK) Laboratory, Germany, Moscow Aviation Institute, Russia, and the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority and the National Research Center.

El-Genk is the recipient of many national recognitions and awards:

o Associate Fellow, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

o Fellow, the American Nuclear Society (ANS).

o Fellow, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

o Fellow, the American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

o Fellow, the International Association for Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS).

o ANS 2021 Reactor Technology Award, in recognition of extraordinary contributions towards advancing space and micro reactor technologies.

o ANS 2015 Thermal-Hydraulics Technical Achievement Award, in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the understanding of terrestrial and space reactor thermal hydraulics phenomena and for his impact on the thermal hydraulics community as a researcher, educator, and leader.

o ANS Distinguished Faculty Member Honor in 1987; the ASME 2017 Heat Transfer Memorial Award, for outstanding contributions to boiling enhancement; immersion cooling of electronics; force, natural and combined convection in rod bundles; heat pipes and thermosyphons; imping and swirling jets heat transfer; thermal hydraulics of nuclear reactors; and thermal management of space nuclear power systems.

o Distinguished Faculty Member Honor, Alpha Nu Sigma Honor Society for Nuclear Science and Engineering.

o AIChE Donald Q. Kern Memorial Award, one of most prestigious in the world in recognizing significant contributions in applied heat and mass transfer.

o AIChE Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion Division Award.

o US Department of Energy Certificate of Appreciation, for Outstanding Contributions to Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion.

o TOPAZ-II Thermionic Nuclear Power System Award, in recognition of his contributions to the space power community for the past ten years through 1993.