Benoit Forget: Unraveling complexities of nuclear reactors
In order to devise new designs for safer, more efficient nuclear reactors, it is essential to be able to simulate the reactors’ performance at a very high level of detail. But because the nuclear reactions taking place in these reactor cores are quite complex, such simulations can strain the capabilities of even the most advanced supercomputer systems. That’s a challenge that Benoit Forget has been tackling throughout his research career: how to provide efficient, high-fidelity simulations on modern computing architectures, and thus enable the development of the next generation of reactors. Addressing those challenges has earned Forget tenure in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, where he is now an associate professor. Forget grew up in the small town of Temiscaming in the province of Quebec, Canada. His father was the principal of the local high school and his mother was a teacher there. “My mom was my French, history, and geography...