NuChemE Project Co-hosts Shires Graduate Research Seminar at NMSU
The NuChemE Pipeline project is pleased to co-host another Shires Graduate Research Seminar in coordination with the Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering at New Mexico State University. We will be welcoming speaker Dr. Yufei Wang; Postdoctoral Research Associate, Chemistry Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Advancing F-Element Separation: From Manual Experimentation to High-Throughput Experimentation and Machine Learning Integration
Abstract: The efficient separation of f-elements remains a longstanding challenge with critical implications for nuclear waste reprocessing, rare earth element recovery, and medical isotope production. Due to the similar solution chemistry of these elements, achieving high selectivity requires highly specific chelators and a comprehensive investigation across a broad range of separation conditions. Traditionally, identifying suitable chelators and optimizing separation conditions have relied on empirical trial-and-error approaches, executed manually—an approach that is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. The introduction of automated high-throughput experimentation (HTE) has significantly accelerated this process by enabling systematic screening across vast experimental spaces. Advancements in machine learning (ML) are further transforming separation science from experience-dependent to data-driven. This presentation will highlight the performance of a hydroxypyridinone chelator across a wide range of acidity (pH 5.5 to 6 M HNO3), 5f-element identity (U to Cf), and absorbed dose (0 to ~100 kGy) in the context of hydrometallurgical reprocessing of used nuclear fuel through manual-experiment-driven approaches. The integration of the LANL Super Separator—a robotic HTE platform for large-scale f-element separation data acquisition—with Bayesian optimization, an ML framework, streamlines the discovery of optimal separation conditions.
Speaker Bio: At LANL, Dr. Yufei Wang focuses on integrating automated high-throughput experimentation with machine learning to enhance the separation and purification of f-elements, including lanthanides (4f) and actinides (5f). He also plays a key role in developing the only robotic instrument within the DOE complex designed to conduct separation experiments on radioactive samples (featured on LANL's postdoc homepage). Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering, with a minor in Chemical Engineering, from the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of Prof. Rebecca J. Abergel. His doctoral research, conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, focused on pioneering use of a hydroxypyridinone ligand to improve the separation and purification of f-elements in the hydrometallurgical reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Prior to his Ph.D., he earned a Master of Engineering in Nuclear Engineering from The University of Tokyo, and a Graduate Certificate in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University.
Location: Jett Hall 213
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:20 pm
Date: Friday, March 28th, 2025
Email NuChemE Project Coordinator to join via zoom (klindema@nmsu.edu)