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The SALT Research Group

UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Department

Haley Williams

BIOGRAPHY

Haley is a Ph.D. candidate in the SALT Research Group studying the structure and speciation in molten fluoride salts. She holds the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship. Prior to her graduate studies, she received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering with minors in French and Physics from The University of Tulsa. During her undergraduate studies, she studied concentrated solar power at The University of Tulsa and molten chloride corrosivity at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

PROJECTS

At UCB, she has worked on the development of electrochemical oxide sensors for molten fluoride salts as a part of the NuSTEM NEUP and the MIT IRP.  She currently studies the speciation of solutes in molten fluoride salts and its dependence and effect on salt structure and fluoroacidity. Specifically, this includes investigation of chromium’s speciation (previously within the FUTURE EFRC) and beryllium, hydrogen, and carbon speciation for the Speciation NEUP. In support of these studies, she researches the development of thermodynamic reference electrodes through the France Berkeley Fund. Beyond nuclear applications, she studies oxyfluoride complexation as relevant to the electrochemical synthesis of lithium battery cathodes in the MiNES DOE BES project. Her research extends to how the epistemological beliefs underlying nuclear engineering affect the practice nuclear engineering, as rooted in the scholarship of STS. This work is supported by the Ron Gester Fellowship.

RECENT AWARDS

2023 Best Student Paper in Nuclear Chemistry, UC Berkeley NE Department

2023 NEA Rising Stars in Nuclear Education, Science, Technology and Policy

2023 Ron Gester Fellowship, UC Berkeley NE Department

2021 Virgil E. Schrock Award for Outstanding Mentorship, UC Berkeley NE Department

2019 UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship

PUBLICATIONS

Fayfar, S., Chahal, R., Williams, H., Gardner, D. N., Zheng, G., Sprouster, D., Neuefeind, J. C., Olds, D., Hwang, A., Mcfarlane, J., Gallagher, R. C., Asta, M., Lam, S., Scarlat, R. O., & Khaykovich, B. (2024) Complex Structure of Molten FLiBe (2LiF-BeF2) Examined by Experimental Neutron Scattering, X-Ray Scattering, and Deep-Neural-Network Based Molecular Dynamics. PRX Energy, 3(1), 013001.

Langford, L., Winner, N., Hwang, A., Williams, H., Vergari, L., Scarlat, R. O., & Asta, M. (2022) Constant-Potential Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Molten-Salt Double Layers for FLiBe and FLiNaK. The Journal of Chemical Physics. 

Consiglio, A. N., Carotti, F., Liu, E., Williams, H., & Scarlat, R. O. (2022). Design and operation of a molten salt electrochemical cell. MethodsX, 9, 101626.

Williams, H. The acidity of salt: The chemistry of advanced nuclear energy. Frontiers in Energy Research Newsletter, Winter 2021

Williams, H. Clean energy you don’t have to take with a grain of salt. Frontiers in Energy Research Newsletter, Spring 2021

Winner, N., Williams, H., Scarlat, R., & Asta, M. (2021) Ab-Initio Simulation Studies of Cr Solvation in Fluoride Molten Salts. Journal of Molecular Liquids, 335, 1163551.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Williams, H., & Scarlat, R. O., Curriculum-embedded epistemological foundations in nuclear engineering, ASEE 2024 Annual Conference. Portland, OR. June 23-26, 2024.

Williams, H., Falkowski, Z., & Scarlat, R. O., Speciation and Diffusivity of Hydrogen in Molten 2LiF-BeF2 for Nuclear Fission and Fusion Applications, 245th Meeting of ECS. San Francisco, CA. May 26-30, 2024.

Williams, H., & Scarlat, R. O., Investigation of the relationship between molten fluoride salt structure and fluoroacidity using chromium as a probe ion, 245th Meeting of ECS. San Francisco, CA. May 26-30, 2024.

Williams, H., & Scarlat, R. O., A Self-Reflection on Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Engineering, 2023 ANS Winter Conference and Expo. Washington, D.C.. November 12-15, 2023.

Williams, H., Cho, R., & Scarlat, R. O., Acid/base effects on chromium species in molten fluoride salts, 2023 TMS Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA. March 19-23, 2023.

Williams, H., & Scarlat, R. O., Acid/base buffering capacity in molten fluoride salts, C3E 2022 Symposium. Washington, D.C.. November 2, 2022. See: https://c3e.org/2022-c3e-posters

Williams, H., & Scarlat, R. O., Redox couple stability studies for thermodynamic reference electrodes and fluoroacidity investigation, 242nd Meeting of the ECS. Atlanta, GA. October 9-13, 2022.

Williams, H., Gardner, N., Asta, M., Khaykovich, B., Vogel, S., Farnan, I., & Scarlat, R. O., Probing Speciation of Light Elements in Molten Salts by Electrochemistry, High Temperature Liquid NMR, and Neutron Diffraction, ANS Annual 2022. Anaheim, CA. June 12-16, 2022

Williams, H. & Scarlat, R. O., Acid/Base Behavior and Buffering Capacity in Molten Fluoride Salts, Young Molten Salt Reactor Conference. Lecco, Italy. June 6-8, 2022.

Williams, H. & Scarlat, R. O., Oxide Sensor Development by Square Wave Voltammetry for Molten Fluoride Salts, 237th ECS Meeting with the 18th International Meeting on Chemical Sensors / PRiME. Virtual. October 4-9, 2020.

Williams, H., Mastromarino, S., & Scarlat, R. O., Quantification of Oxide-Containing Species in Molten Salt Melts, ACS Fall Meeting. Virtual. August 16-20, 2020

Loe, E., Williams, H., Sanders, N., Feng, M., Tian, S. Solar-Powered Cell Phone Charging Station for Youth Services of Tulsa. Engineers Without Borders National Conference. San Francisco, CA, November 2018. (Project featured in EWB-USA national published interview: “Keeping Kids Connected: Engineering Students Create Solar Charging Station for Homeless Youth” Feb 27, 2019)

Williams, Henry, Loe, E., Feng, M., Sultan, H., Williams, Haley. Solar-Powered Cell Phone Chargers for the Red Cross. The University of Tulsa Research Colloquium, Community Services Symposium, The University of Tulsa. April 2018

UNDERGRADUATE MENTORING

  • Qiye Hu (UCSB ChemE ‘23) Carbon speciation in molten FLiBe, graphite oxidation in the presence of FLiBe
  • Colton Bruni (LSU ChemE) Electrochemical thermal desorption of hydrogen from graphite in FLiBe
  • Zachary Falkowski (UCB Chemistry ’23) Diffusion and speciation of hydrogen in FLiBe
  • Ruben Cho (UCB MSE) Diffusivity studies of Cr species in melts of various pF
  • Kirthi Kumar (UCB CS/Business) GUI for electrochemical oxide sensor
  • Reese Carlton (UCB ChemE) Elemental analysis
  • Nigel Mesta (UCB NE) Electrochemical studies and apparatus design
  • Will Heriot (UCB NE ’21) Microwave digestion, lab infrastructure

TEACHING & SYNERGISTIC ACTIVITES 

  • Facilitator, Ethics Fridays for AI Institute for Advances in Optimization (Spring 2024) and Ethics Workshop at GA Tech (Spring 2022)
  • Expanding Your Horizons at Berkeley, 2022-2024 (Planning Committee 2022-2023; Workshop Leader 2024)
  • Nuclear Equity and Justice Workshop (Reimagining Nuclear Engineering Education) 2022
  • Graduate Student Instructor, E125 Ethics, Engineering, and Society (Spring 2022)
  • Curriculum and Syllabus Development, NE/PP285C  Nuclear Security: The Nexus between Policy and Technology (Spring 2022)
  • Board Member, Frontiers in Energy Research Newsletter Editorial Board (2021-2022)
  • Invited panelist, Society of Women Engineers – Career Options: Grad School Pathways (Spring 2021)

 

 

 

ORCiD profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1502-1296