Bio
Dr. Katarzyna (Kate) Borowiec is an R&D Staff Member - System and Data Analytics Engineer in the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). She received her PhD (2021) and MS (2017) in Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a minor in Statistics, and holds BS degrees in Physics from the University of Warsaw and in Power Engineering from the Warsaw University of Technology.
Katarzyna has extensive experience in thermal-hydraulics modeling of nuclear reactor systems, with a research record spanning verification and validation, uncertainty quantification, and sensitivity analysis. Her current research combines data-driven approaches with physics-based modeling, leveraging reduced-order modeling, machine learning, and high-performance computing. Her research interests include software development, computational fluid dynamics, and agentic AI workflows applied to fusion and fission modeling and simulation.
Education
- PH.D. in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2018-2021)
- Concentration: Computational Science and Engineering
- Minor: Statistics
- M.S. in in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2016-2017)
- B.SC. in Physics, University of Warsaw (2013-2016)
- B.SC.ENG in Power Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology (2012-2016)
Technical skills
- Experienced in various thermal-hydraulics codes used in nuclear industry including system codes (TRACE, RELAP5, RELAP5-3D) and subchannel codes (CTF)
- Expert in uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis methods in the nuclear reactor safety applications
- Experienced in machine learning and statistical analysis methods
- Computational skills
- TH codes: TRACE, RELAP5, CTF, ANSYS Fluent, COMSOL Multiphysics
- Neutronics Codes: SCALE, SERPENT, MCNP
- Programming: JavaScript, R, Python, Matlab, VBA, C, C++, Fortran, Modelica, OpenMP, MPI
- AI: PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit‑learn, MCP, A2A, Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot
- Other: Cluster computing, LaTeX, Git, Mathematica, LAMMPS, Bash, TokDesigner, IPS/FASTRAN