The College’s smallest department marks a big milestone this year with a special colloquium commemorating its 50th anniversary. The NE community will welcome back alumni and friends to a two-day event September 19th and 20th showcasing the department’s history and contributions to the nuclear engineering field.

“The work of three generations of nuclear engineers has given us the tools to solve some of humanity’s most pressing problems, offering solutions that are critical to preserving our health, security and environment and our access to clean and abundant energy,” says NE professor Per Peterson.

The colloquium will also honor two retiring professors. NE professor Bill Kastenberg will end his career after 42 years with UC; NE professor Don Olander will retire after 50 years at Cal.

Olander was one of the first to join the department, which was founded in the fall of 1958 at the height of America’s atomic age. It became UC’s first and only nuclear engineering department.

A decade later, the department had grown to 95 graduate students. That same year, researchers were running studies using a complete, one-megawatt nuclear reactor that had been installed two years earlier in the basement of a newly minted Etcheverry Hall.

By the 1990s, nuclear power and technology had fallen out of public favor, and the NE department, like others around the country, saw its funding and enrollment decline. When the City of Berkeley went nuclear-free in 1986, the university removed the nuclear reactor.

Yet the department persevered. It poured its brain power into radioactive waste management research and emerging medical applications and continued to attract bright and motivated students.

Students like NE/EECS senior Brian Frisbie. He’s part of a new generation of nuclear engineers who are seeing the pendulum of public opinion swing back in favor of nuclear energy and security.

And the department is seeing a rebirth. Its funding grew from $4.07 million in 2004–2005 to $6.82 million in 2006–2007. Last year, 53 undergraduates and 55 grad students were enrolled.

“Fifty years ago, nuclear energy was this fantastic thing that promised to solve our country’s energy problems,” Frisbie says. “It’s always been a very viable solution. Now we’re coming back to those original days of excitement. I think the colloquium isn’t just about the department’s 50 years, but a celebration that nuclear engineering itself is coming back.”

YOU’RE INVITED: On Friday, September 19, from 2 to 5 p.m., the NE Department (4155 Etcheverry Hall) will host an open house and lab and campus tours.

For additional colloquium events and activities, go to http://anniversary.nuc.berkeley.edu.