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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
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Empowering the next generation: ANS’s newest book focuses on careers in nuclear energy
A new career guide for the nuclear energy industry is now available: The Nuclear Empowered Workforce by Earnestine Johnson. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across 16 nuclear facilities, Johnson offers a practical, insightful look into some of the many career paths available in commercial nuclear power. To mark the release, Johnson sat down with Nuclear News for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, her motivation for writing the book, and her advice for the next generation of nuclear professionals.
When Johnson began her career at engineering services company Stone & Webster, she entered a field still reeling from the effects of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nearly 15 years earlier. Her hiring cohort was the first group of new engineering graduates the company had brought on since TMI, a reflection of the industry-wide pause in nuclear construction. Her first long-term assignment—at the Millstone site in Waterford, Conn., helping resolve design issues stemming from TMI—marked the beginning of a long and varied career that spanned positions across the country.
What is the competition?
The ANS Fusion Energy Division (FED) sponsors a student paper competition at each TOFE that awards monetary prizes for outstanding papers. Undergraduate and graduate authors are judged to the same criteria. Depending on the number of applicants, up to three awards will be given in total, and awarded to either undergraduate or graduate students. Finalists will be chosen for an oral presentation at TOFE 2024. The student winners will be notified before TOFE, but the certificate presentation will take place at the TOFE banquet.
Who is eligible?
Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to submit papers to the competition. The student must be the first author of the paper. The student must have already submitted an abstract to the Electronic Paper Submission and Review (EPSR) portal as part of the normal TOFE abstract review process.
When is the deadline?
We have extended the deadline to midnight eastern daylight time on July 1st, 2024. Originally, the finalists for the paper competition were going to be given podium presentations at the TOFE conference. We decided to extend the deadline to encourage more participation, but because of that, the finalists will no longer be guaranteed a podium presentation at the TOFE conference.
How to submit your paper for the competition?
Students who wish to participate in the competition should submit their full paper to Lauren Garrison (lgarrison@cfs.energy). The paper can be in .docx or .pdf format. The email should include the subject "TOFE student paper competition." The body of the email should state what university the student is enrolled in.
What type of papers are eligible and how to format papers?
Papers submitted to the competition should be the same style and quality as that which would be considered for publication in a peer reviewed journal. Please use the formatting guidelines of Fusion Science and Technology (FS&T) to format your papers. There is no page limit or requirement, but as a rough guideline, papers are often in the range of 5-15 pages. We hope that any students who submit their papers to the competition will also seek to publish their papers in FS&T in the TOFE special issues. For publication in FS&T, the student will need to submit their paper for publication on the normal TOFE publication deadline and through the journal website, which is separate from this competition. After you submit your paper to the TOFE student paper competition, you can revise it or make any desired changes before you submit it to FS&T for publication.
How are papers judged?
The papers will be reviewed by experts in the field of fusion science and technology. A scoring rubric is used to evaluate the quality and clarity of the writing as well as the scientific merit of the research. We are looking for papers where the scientific method of the research is sound, the writing is understandable with correct grammar, and appropriate references of related works are cited.
Do you have additional questions?
Please contact Lauren Garrison (lgarrison@cfs.energy)
Last modified May 28, 2024, 7:43am CDT
