Haley Williams

4116 Etcheverry Hall

BIOGRAPHY

Haley is a Ph.D. student 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. 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 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.

RECENT AWARDS

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

2019 UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship

PUBLICATIONS

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., 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.

Kumar, K., Williams, H. ANS Student Conference

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

UNDERGRADUATE MENTORING

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

Nuclear Equity and Justice Workshop (Reimagining Nuclear Engineering Education) 2022
Expanding Your Horizons at Berkeley, Planning Committee 2022 (Recruitment)
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)
Facilitator, Ethics Workshop for AI Institute for Advances in Optimization (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