Group News
2025
October 20
Claudia is crowned the victor of the Finkeldei Lab's annual pumpkin carving contest! The rest of the group, who admittedly really raised the bar this year with their very artistic pumpkins, was consoled by making equally-beautiful pizzas together. Happy fall!
September 27
The Finkeldei Group celebrates the beginning of a new academic year with a birthday cake for Sarah! We are excited to welcome our new rotating students and kick off the fall quarter!
September 21
Audrey travels to Washington D.C. as part of the Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation (NESD). The delegation drafted a policy statement covering current issues in the nuclear industry, met with governmental and non-governmental nuclear stakeholders, and spoke with Congressional offices about the importance of nuclear energy. Highlights included meeting with the Department of Energy - Office of Nuclear Energy, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and NRC Commissioner Matt Marzano!
August 17
Audrey presents her work, Machine learning potential development for advanced oxide fuels, at the American Chemical Society Fall 2025 conference. Sarah also presents our group's work at the poster session!
July 8
Steven presents his work, Corrosion of 316 SS waste canister and Zircaloy-4 cladding in contact with UO2 under conditions relevant to a Deep Geological Repository, at the Goldschmidt 2025 conference in Prague! The conference is hosted by the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society.
June 4
Sarah is TENURED!!!! Congrats to Sarah for being recognized for all that she's done to foster nuclear science at UCI!
June 2
Max is awarded the Michael E. Gebel Award by the Department of Chemistry. Congrats!
May 30
Audrey is selected as a delegate for the 2025 Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation. She will travel to Washington DC in September to engage with policymakers regarding nuclear science, policy, and regulation!
May 22
The Finkeldei Lab attends the E.K.C. Lee Dinner!
May 6
Jessica's paper, "Dust-Free Sol-Gel Synthesis of Neodymium Oxide Microspheres as a Surrogate for Americium-241 Fueled Radioisotope Power Systems" is published in ACS Omega!
March 28
Jessica and Sarah spend a week at the MARC conference in Kona, Hawaii. When not learning about nuclear forensics, they spent some time catching up with group alumnus Jack, snorkeling with manta rays, and eating malasadas.
March 25
Audrey and Sarah travel to Vegas for the TMS 2025 Annual Meeting & Exhibition. They joined materials scientists and engineers from around the world to discuss current challenges and research in nuclear materials. Audrey also spent a day at the Atomic Museum learning about the history of the Nevada Test Site!
February 19
Jessica is awarded the International Sol-Gel Society's Renata Reisfeld PhD Student Fellowship for Women! The fellowship recognizes outstanding contributions to sol-gel science and technology in celebration of the life and career of Professor Renata Reisfeld, a pioneer of sol-gel.
January 23
Congratulations to Andrew for getting accepted into the Seaborg Institute Nuclear Science and Security Undergraduate Internship program! We’re sure you’ll learn a lot (and have fun) at Lawrence Livermore National Lab this summer.
January 17
Max, Alex, Nox and Andrew finished up their Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reactor Operator Exams - great job making it through 4 hours of practical and 3 hours of written exams!
2024
November 26
The Group has some fun in the glassblowing workshop – Maik (UCI’s Glassblower) has some stations set up for us to begin Lesson 1 of glassblowing basics!
November 6
Congratulations to Steven for passing his Advancement to Candidacy Exam! He popped some well-deserved champagne on the terrace to celebrate with the group!
November 4
Sarah gives her tenure talk to the UCI Department of Chemistry. Congratulations on such a huge milestone!
October 20
The Group holds its annual Pumpkins & Pizza celebration! Sarah has been dethroned - Antaoliy and his wife take the top prize in our pumpkin carving competition, winning with a stellar and creative upside-down pumpkin cat!!
September 27
The Group heads out a little early on Friday for an ocean swim at Crystal Cove to celebrate Sarah's birthday!
September 5
Jessica's first first-author paper, "Phase formation of γ-LiAlO2 via transformation of a layered double hydroxide (LDH) by internal gelation," is accepted into the Journal of Nuclear Materials and published online!
September 3
Audrey and Sarah travel to Avignon for the 6th International ATALANTE Conference on Nuclear Chemistry for Sustainable Fuel Cycles. Sarah gave a talk as part of the Actinide Materials and Nuclear Fuels symposium, and Audrey won the Best Poster Award for her poster presentation on machine learning potential development for uranium oxide fuels.
August 25
We’re sad that out post-bac Jacque is leaving, but are excited for her to start her new chapter as a Post Bachelor Research Assistant at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory! Congratulations on your new job! (We’ll have to come up to Richland to visit!)
August 21
Steven presents his research on the corrosion of barrier materials in repository-like conditions at the Goldschmidt conference in Chicago! Now he can relax and go see the Bean!
August 16
We're excited to wrap up the second annual Nuclear Science Workshop with the Seaborg Institute at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The one-week workshop was held at LLNL and the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLCC), and provided more than 30 UCI undergrads with a hands-on opportunity to learn about nuclear science, tour laboratories at LLNL, and network with members from several national labs.
June 14
Congratulations to our graduating undergrads, Kaneen and Jack! Kaneen is headed to Maryland to work as a Reactor Operator/Nuclear Engineer at (powerplant name) and Jack is headed up to Oregon to begin their PhD studies in Nuclear Engineering at OSU.
April 21
Congratulations to Dídac, who earned his Master’s in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and is now headed back to Spain - we’ll miss you! We also will definitely have to come visit you and see the Human Towers competition in Tarragona!
2023
December 13
Jessica and John present on their individual projects at the Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems conference in New Orleans! Now they can relax and enjoy a daiquiri and some gumbo!
October 22
Sarah wins the pumpkin carving contest at the group's annual Pumpkins and Pizza celebration for the second year in a row! She holds onto the crown for another year...
June 15
Congratulations to our graduating undergrads, Colin and Jacque! We’re so proud of you and are glad that neither of you are going too far away - Colin is going to work as an Engineer at Boeing in Huntington Beach, while Jacque is sticking around to do a post bac here with us!
2022
December 9
Congratulations to Timothy for earning his Master's Degree in Chemistry - we're excited to see what your next chapter bring!