Kevin Field: 2025 Early Career Award recipient

MS materials science ’09, PhD materials science ’12 (BS materials science ’07, Michigan
Technological University)
Professor of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan

A materials engineer who is shaping the future of nuclear energy through outstanding education and research innovation.

As an undergraduate at Michigan Technological University, Kevin Field developed a passion for metallurgy. “I was just really interested in how you could take materials, which we’ve been using since the Iron Age, to make the wonderful objects we have,” he says. “I was fascinated that we’re still researching it, engineering it, and doing all sorts of things with it.”

That passion led him to UW-Madison for his PhD studies under (former) Professor Todd Allen, who added something new to the equation: radiation. “I started learning more and more about nuclear materials and it blew my mind. There are so many aspects to it; I guess I drank the Kool-Aid, and I’m still on it,” Field says.

During graduate school, Field spent a lot of time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, using the microscopy equipment and getting to know the lab. He applied for and won a coveted Weinberg Fellowship at Oak Ridge. He eventually became a staff scientist and spent six and a half years working on advanced alloy development and radiation effects in material systems relevant for nuclear power generation.

In 2019, Field joined the University of Michigan, continuing his work coupling advanced characterization and irradiation methods with accelerated analysis techniques to enable new insights into materials used for both fission and fusion. His research earned him a Department of Energy Early Career Award in 2020, American Nuclear Society Landis Young Member Engineering Achievement Award in 2024, and a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2025. He also earned the rank of full professor earlier this year.

“Awards are great,” says Field, “but my real career highlight is working with materials that have the potential to increase efficiencies and safety in nuclear systems. We can have a large impact on the way we generate energy.”

How did your engineering education enable your success?

What I learned in graduate school and from my advisor—the intangible things I got exposed to—I have carried through my career. Like how to talk about science and how to convince people your ideas are good, as well as writing, giving presentations and those types of things. We always think engineers are learning how to do derivatives and math, but there’s a whole other aspect of the job I was exposed to as a grad student.

What do you enjoy most about your career?

The students. I’ve had students come in who won a grant or fellowship and cry with happiness in my office. It’s one of the coolest things to see them set goals and meet those goals. And being able to see that on an almost weekly basis? It’s the reason I come into work every day.

Which do you prefer?

State Street or Lakeshore path?
Sometimes, as a grad student, I would work in the lab until it got dark, then ride my bike down State Street and go to Paul’s Pel’meni, a little Russian dumpling shop. If you knew them well enough, you could get pelmeni with rye bread and a shot of vodka from their freezer. That was the perfect end to a long day in the lab.

Favorite Babcock ice cream flavor?
When I was there, they had sensory testing at Babcock Dairy; they would pass cheese or different ice cream flavors through a wall and you’d rank them. If we weren’t trying to furiously generate data, we’d go down and take part in it; some of those flavors were really good.