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Intern’s role integral

to H Canyon mission

Anna Whitfield has been an SRNS H Canyon Process Engineering intern
since June 2020 and has been an integral part of planning for the new
Accelerated Basin De-inventory (ABD) potential mission in H Canyon.
“Anna’s input has been invaluable in the planning for ABD,” said Tara
Smith with H Canyon Engineering. “We entrusted her with some very
complicated projects, and she has exceeded all of our expectations in
completing them.”
Working with H Canyon engineers, Whitfield spent countless hours
during the summer making changes and perfecting input to an
operational research model for ABD. SRNS commissioned the
construction of the model to assess and further improve the ABD
approach. Built in collaboration with a leading engineering firm,
Different by Design (DBD), the model identifies production bottlenecks

David DiPrete, Ph.D., SRNL researcher, joins Purdue University and demonstrates potential solutions to improve process throughput.
as a special graduate faculty member.
“Anna was dedicated to perfecting the input so that it would be
relatively easy to understand and would satisfy the needs of the
SRNL researcher H Canyon staff,” said Smith. “Her pride in her work and her confidence
in presenting her results led H Canyon management to extend her
joins Purdue University employment beyond the summer.”

special graduate faculty “For me, I think my biggest
achievement throughout my
internship was working on
Savannah River National Laboratory’s David DiPrete, Ph.D., has been projects that were unlike
named special graduate faculty member at Purdue University, a premiere anything I had ever worked
educational, engineering, science and research doctoral granting- on before,” said Whitfield.
university located in West Lafayette, Indiana. “Along with the modeling
Nominated by Rusi Taleyarkhan, Ph.D., a Purdue faculty member and project, I also began writing
SRNL research partner, the nomination notes DiPrete’s position will aid the First Uranium Cycle layup
in developing future collaborative projects with Purdue and provide more documents, including the First
opportunities for students to gain experience in the fields of chemistry Cycle Flush Plan.”
and nuclear engineering. This collaborative technical partnership will join
Purdue and SRNL resources, as well as yield a potential career path for Whitfield credits her internship Anna Whitfield
Purdue alumni. with helping to prepare her for
“As we continue to collaborate with SRNL on various research projects, her future career by allowing her to work in a completely new aspect
DiPrete’s special graduate faculty position officially welcomes and of chemical engineering and by helping develop her professional soft
recognizes his stature as a stalwart in the field, and integrates him [and skills. “Each day, I’m learning something new, whether it be navigating
SRNL] into our program and the educational-research workforce pipeline,” Site-specific software or honing my technical writing skills or working
said Taleyarkhan.
with a team of peers, which continues to push me and allows me to
As a special graduate faculty member, DiPrete will serve on the Graduate grow as a professional,” she said.
Committee of several students pursuing Master of Science to Ph.D.
degrees, contributing his specialized expertise to the work of graduate Originally from Pensacola, Florida, Whitfield is a student at Clemson
students. He will also serve as a research adviser, joining Purdue University. She heard about the internship opportunities at SRS from
University faculty and students with SRNL researchers on future projects. family that live in the Central Savannah River Area. Although she
DiPrete explains that partnering with universities cultivates diverse areas started as a summer intern, Whitfield has continued her work on the
of expertise for the future of SRNL. ABD project through teleworking while also completing classes.
“Collaborating with universities adds to resources available, increases At Clemson, she is a member of the university’s chapter of American
funding opportunities, advances DOE’s missions, and strengthens future Institute of Chemical Engineers, Order of Omega and the Epsilon Tau
talent,” said DiPrete. Chapter of Kappa Delta. Order of Omega is a Greek honor society
DiPrete received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Rensselaer consisting of the top 3% of Greek Life in academics, leadership and
Polytechnic Institute and a doctorate in nuclear chemistry from the scholarship. In Kappa Delta, she has served in a variety of positions
University of Kentucky. and is currently the Parenting Place Committee Head, where she
serves as the chapter’s direct connection to their local philanthropy.