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Adrien Couet

Adrien Couet

Associate Chair for Graduate Studies
Professor

Dr. Adrien Couet is a Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he manages the Materials Degradation under Corrosion and Radiation (MaDCoR) laboratory. Previously, he worked as a nuclear materials research engineer at EDF (Electricite De France) in France, focusing on high-temperature aqueous corrosion and modeling corrosion of nuclear materials. He was hired at EDF after graduating in 2014 with a PhD in Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University, focusing on corrosion of nuclear fuel cladding. While at UW-Madison, Prof. Couet has worked on developing his research group around fundamental understanding of materials degradation in extreme environments, with a focus on light water and molten salt reactors, using state of the art characterization techniques and first-principles modeling. He also lately started to develop an interest in alloy design based on high-throughput experimentation and machine learning based modeling. MaDCoR research programs evolve around fuel cladding corrosion in LWRs, developing structural materials and cladding for molten salts reactors and designing novel radiation resistant compositionally complex alloys for fission and fusion technologies. Prof. Couet also manages the UW Ion Beam Laboratory, a Nuclear Science User Facility, and is a co-organizer of the Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp, which aims at training future entrepreneurs in the nuclear field.

Department

Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics

Contact

921, Engineering Research Building
1500 Engineering Dr
Madison, WI

  • PhD 2014, Penn State University
  • MS 2011, Ecole Centrale de Lyon
  • MS 2011, Penn State University
  • BS 2009, Ecole Centrale de Lyon

  • Nuclear Materials
  • Irradiation Damage
  • Corrosion of Metals and Alloys
  • Oxidation Model
  • Electrochemistry
  • Synchrotron Radiation
  • Defect Transport in Oxides

  • 2023 Schmidt Futures, Schmidt Futures Innovation Fellow
  • 2022 Journal of Nuclear Materials, Shortlist for the 2022 Journal of Nuclear Materials 'Rising Star Awards'
  • 2021 College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grainger Associate Professor
  • 2021 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vilas Faculty Early-Career Investigator Award
  • 2018 Grainger Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Early Career Award
  • 2017 Gordon Research, Best Poster award
  • 2016 US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Faculty Development award
  • 2014 American Nuclear Society, Best Poster Presentation Award
  • Toshiba-Westinghouse, Toshiba-Westinghouse Graduate Fellowship

  • Wang, Y., Falconer, C., & Couet, A. (2025). Dendrite corrosion of 316L stainless steel weld joint in NaCl--MgCl2 molten salt loop. npj Materials Degradation, 9(1), 6.
  • Liu, J., Xue, F., Zhang, W., Zhang, H., Frankel, P., Lucadamo, G., Howland, W., Moody, M., Bagot, P., Grovenor, C., & others, (2025). Evidence for hydrogen and oxygen diffusion through grain boundaries in autoclave formed oxides on Zircaloy-4: A correlative APT and TEM study. Corrosion Science, 112981.
  • Curtis, N., Shah, S., Bachhav, M., Bawane, K., Teng, F., Parkin, C., Yao, T., Wen, H., & Couet, A. (2025). Local chemical ordering of a neutron-irradiated CrFeMnNi compositionally complex alloy. Acta Materialia, 120752.
  • Cavin, J., Omprakash, P., Couet, A., & Mishra, R. (2025). SymPlex Plots for Visualizing Properties in High-Dimensional Alloy Spaces. arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.03973.
  • Hatler, C., Robin, I., Kim, H., Curtis, N., Sun, B., Aydogan, E., Fensin, S., Couet, A., Martinez, E., Thoma, D. J., & others, (2025). The path towards plasma facing components: A review of state-of-the-art in W-based refractory high-entropy alloys. Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science, 34, 101201.
  • Buttice, K. J., Couet, A., Gakhar, R., & Yang, Q. (2024). Optical Chlorobasicity Determination in Molten ZnCl2-KCl Via UV-Vis Spectroscopy. In Electrochemical Society Meeting Abstracts prime2024 (pp. 3789–3789).
  • Zhang, H., Su, R., Queylat, B., Kim, T., Lucadamo, G., Howland, W., & Couet, A. (2024). 3D reconstruction and interconnectivity quantification of the nano-porosity in the oxide layer of corroded Zr alloys. Corrosion Science, 226, 111630.
  • Xi, J., Zhang, H., Su, R., Wei, S., Hu, X., Queylat, B., Kim, T., Couet, A., & Szlufarska, I. (2024). Coupling of radiation and grain boundary corrosion in SiC. npj Materials Degradation, 8(1), 16.
  • Kim, C., & Couet, A. (2024). In Situ Monitoring of Molten Chloride Salt Chemistry and Corrosion Using a Microelectrode. Journal of the American Chemical Society.
  • Zhu, C., Song, J., Xu, X., Wang, C., Tong, Y., Lin, L., Guo, S., Zhou, W., Couet, A., & Wang, Y. (2024). Lewis Acidity and Basicity Diagnostics of Molten Salt for its Properties and Structure Online Monitoring. arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.13368.

  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Spring 2025)
  • N E 699 - Advanced Independent Study (Spring 2025)
  • N E 790 - Master's Research and Thesis (Spring 2025)
  • N E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Spring 2025)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Fall 2024)
  • N E 545 - Materials Degradation in Advanced Nuclear Reactor Environments (Fall 2024)
  • N E 790 - Master's Research and Thesis (Fall 2024)
  • N E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Fall 2024)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Summer 2024)
  • N E 790 - Master's Research and Thesis (Summer 2024)
  • N E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Summer 2024)
  • M S & E 790 - Master's Research or Thesis (Spring 2024)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Spring 2024)
  • M S & E 990 - Research and Thesis (Spring 2024)
  • N E 699 - Advanced Independent Study (Spring 2024)
  • N E 790 - Master's Research and Thesis (Spring 2024)
  • N E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Spring 2024)
  • M S & E 790 - Master's Research or Thesis (Fall 2023)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Fall 2023)
  • N E 790 - Master's Research and Thesis (Fall 2023)
  • N E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Fall 2023)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Summer 2023)
  • N E 790 - Master's Research and Thesis (Summer 2023)
  • N E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Summer 2023)
  • N E 990 - Research and Thesis (Summer 2023)