Lisa Marshall discusses the future of nuclear education
ANS President Lisa Marshall recently sat down with Phil Zeringue, vice president of strategic partnerships at Nuclearn.ai to talk about the evolving state of education in the nuclear world.
For Marshall, who is the director of outreach, retention, and engagement in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University, education is her passion. In the interview, she first touched on her recent attendance at the ANS Student Conference, with its theme “Old and Nu.” She explained that over the course of the conference, students attained a more concrete understanding of the broad applications of modern nuclear technology from medicine, clean energy, and agriculture to industry, space exploration, and beyond.
Today’s challenges: Moving more broadly into the current state of nuclear education, Marshall talked through the hurdles facing the field today. One of the biggest challenges affecting nuclear education—and STEM education at large—is the fostering of an environment that supports student growth while keeping them on track and excited as they pursue their degrees. This is made more difficult by the fact that students are often making choices that will determine their futures during secondary education and so solely focusing on increasing postsecondary retention is not enough.
Educational keys: Marshall laid out a few key points on her philosophy of education. For her, one oft ignored priority is developing “soft skills,” which she prefers to call “professional skills” so as to highlight the importance of developing both one’s technical skills and their ability to work alongside others.
Another key is finding the correct balance in a degree’s program between mandatory requirements and areas left up to student choice. For example, she said, some students will gravitate toward studying abroad, while others will focus on student research. Meeting both those students where their passions lie is critical.
Still, there are times when a student must be pushed into trying something uncomfortable, whether that’s taking classes to develop professional skills or technical classes where they will have to deal with overcoming failures.
Nuclearn background: On its website, Nuclearn.ai is described as “the only artificial intelligence platform tailored to nuclear,” offering generative AI-backed assistance to automation, observation, analytics, and more. The company’s CEO, Bradley Fox, was among the inaugural members of the Nuclear News 40 Under 40 list.
Go deeper: To watch the whole interview between Zeringue and Marshall, which goes deeper on her experiences teaching at NC State, her journey into the nuclear world, and more, visit Nuclearn.ai’s YouTube channel.
