Sarah C. Finkeldei
Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Biography
Sarah C. Finkeldei is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine, with appointments in the Departments of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She obtained her Ph.D. in Science from RWTH Aachen University in Germany in 2014, specializing in Nuclear Materials Chemistry, and completed her Diploma in Chemistry there in 2011. Finkeldei began her tenure at UCI in July 2019, following postdoctoral research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Nuclear Fuels Materials group.
Finkeldei's research is centered on nuclear materials chemistry, with a focus on complex oxides related to advanced nuclear fuels and nuclear waste forms. She has secured over $5.8 million in research funding as a principal investigator from various agencies, including the Department of Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Her work has been published in notable journals such as the Journal of Nuclear Materials and Acta Materialia. Finkeldei has been recognized with several awards, including the Excellence Award from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education award at UCI in 2024.
At UCI, Finkeldei teaches courses in Nuclear and Radiochemistry and General Chemistry for non-majors. She has played a significant role in outreach and professional service activities, organizing the UC Irvine Nuclear Science Workshop and engaging in initiatives for middle and high school students. Finkeldei serves on various committees within the university and contributes to international conferences as a session organizer and panelist. She is a member of professional organizations such as the American Nuclear Society and the American Chemical Society.
Return to topEducation
- PhD in Nuclear Materials Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Germany, 2014
- Diploma in Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Germany, 2011
Distinctions
- Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education award for the Department of Chemistry, UCI, 2024
- The Rose Hills Foundation Innovator Fellowship, 2024
- Society for Technical Communication 2022 Alliance Competition award of Excellence for workshop report “Innovative Separations R&D Needs for Advanced Fuel Cycles, 2022
- Outstanding Contributions in Reviewing, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2018
- Excellence Award ("Exzellenzpreis") of the Forschungszentrum Jülich, 2016
- Borchers-Badge ("Borchers-Plakette") RWTH Aachen University, 2016
- Cutting-Edge Idea award of the Forschungszentrum Jülich (COCO-SNUF), 2015
- PhD award of the German Chemical Society, Nuclear Chemistry Division (GDCh), 2015
- HITEC Communicator Award, 2nd HITEC Symposium Energy and Climate Research; Jülich, 2014
Areas of Expertise
- Nuclear Materials Chemistry
- UO2 Fuel Research
- Pyrochlore Ceramics
- Nuclear Waste Management
- Complex Oxides
- Actinide Incorporation
- Radiation Damage Analysis
- Neutron Spectroscopy
- Grain Boundary Phenomena
- Nuclear Energy Materials
Recent Publications
- S.J. Dillon, S.C. Finkeldei, E. Lag, K. Hattar, A.T. Nelson, “Using in situ UO2 Bicrystal Sintering to Understand Grain boundary dislocation Nucleation Kinetics and Creep” (opens in new tab), J. Am. Ceram. Soc., vol. 107, pp. 6701 – 6714, 2024.
- S.J. Dillon, E. Lang, S.C. Finkeldei, J.-h. Ouyang, K. Hattar, “A Nucleation Rate Limited Model for Grain Boundary Creep” (opens in new tab), Acta Materialia, vol. 246, pp. 118718, 2023.
- D. Drey, E. O’Quinn, S. Finkeldei, J. Neuefeind, M. Lang, “Local ordering in disordered NdxZr1-xO2-0.5x pyrochlore as observed using neutron total scattering” (opens in new tab), Acta Materialia, vol. 225, pp. 117590, 2022.
- G.J. Thorogood, S. Chang, S. Finkeldei, “Effect of different fabrication avenues of pyrochlore ceramics towards order/disorder transitions” (opens in new tab), Elsevier Series on Advanced Ceramic Materials; Pyrochlore Ceramics, Elsevier, pp. 161–179, 2022.
- S.C. Finkeldei, S. Chang, M. Ionescu, D. Oldfield, J. Davis, D. Simeone, M. Avdeev, F. Brandt, D. Bosbach, M. Klinkenberg, G.J. Thorogood, “Insight into Disorder, Stress and Strain of Radiation Damaged Pyrochlores: A Possible Mechanism for the Appearance of Defect Fluorite” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Chemistry, vol. 9, pp. 706736, 2021.
- A. Miskowiec, T. Spano, Z. E. Brubaker, J. L. Niedziela, D. L. Abernathy, Rodney D. Hunt, S. Finkeldei, “Antiferromagnetic ordering and possible lattice response to dynamic uranium valence in U3O8” (opens in new tab), Phys. Rev. B., vol. 103, pp. 205101, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- C. Fischer, S. Finkeldei, F. Brandt, D. Bosbach, A. Lüttge, “Direct measurement of surface dissolution rates in potential nuclear waste forms: The example of pyrochlore” (opens in new tab), ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 7, pp. 17857-17865, 2015.
- S. Finkeldei, J.O. Kiggans, R.D. Hunt, A.T. Nelson, K.A. Terrani, “Fabrication of UO2-Mo composite fuel with enhanced conductivity from sol-gel feedstock” (opens in new tab), Journal of Nuclear Materials, vol. 520, pp. 56-64, 2019.
- S. Finkeldei, Ph. Kegler, P.M. Kowalski, C. Schreinemachers, F. Brandt, A.A. Bukaemskiy, V.L. Vinograd, G. Beridze, A. Shelyug, A. Navrotsky, D. Bosbach, “Composition dependent order- disorder transition in NdxZr1-xO2-0.5x pyrochlores: a combined structural, calorimetric and ab initio modeling study” (opens in new tab), Acta Materialia, vol. 125, pp. 166-176, 2017.
- K.S. Holliday, S. S. Neumeier, C. Walther, D. T. Stumpf, “of Eu 3+ and Cm 3+ doped La2Zr2O7: A Comparison of Defect Fluorite to Pyrochlore Structures” (opens in new tab), J. Nucl. Mater., vol. 433, pp. 479–485, 2012.
- S. Finkeldei, F. Brandt, K. Rozov, A. Bukaemskiy, S. Neumeier, D. Bosbach, “Dissolution of ZrO2 based Pyrochlores in the Acid pH Range: A Macroscopic and Electron Microscopy Study” (opens in new tab), Applied Geochemistry, vol. 49, pp. 31-41, 2014.
- S. Finkeldei, M. C. Stennett, P. M. Kowalski, Y. Ji, E. de Visser-Tynova, N. C. Hyatt, D. Bosbach, F. Brandt, “Insights into the fabrication and structure of plutonium pyrochlore” (opens in new tab), Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 8, pp. 2387-2403, 2020.
- S. Finkeldei, F. Brandt, A. Bukaemskiy, S. Neumeier, G. Modolo, D. Bosbach, “Synthesis and Dissolution Kinetics of Zirconia based Ceramics” (opens in new tab), Prog. Nucl. Energ., vol. 72, pp. 130-133, 2013.
- A. Miskowiec, T. Spano, R. Hunt, A.E. Shields, J.L. Niedziela, S. Finkeldei, “Structural features of solid-solid phase transitions and lattice dynamics in U3O8” (opens in new tab), Phys. Rev. Mater., vol. 4, pp. 093160, 2020.
- R.D. Hunt, J.L. Collins, M.H. Lloyd, S. Finkeldei, “Production of more ideal uranium trioxide microspheres for the sol-gel microsphere process without the use of carbon” (opens in new tab), J. Nucl. Mater., vol. 515, pp. 107-110, 2019.
- S. Szenknect, S. Finkeldei, F. Brandt, J. Ravaux, M. Odorico, R. Podor, J. Lautru, N. Dacheux, D. Bosbach, “Monitoring the microstructural evolution of Nd2Zr2O7 pyrochlore during dissolution at 90 °C in 4 M HCl: Implications regarding the evaluation of the chemical durability” (opens in new tab), J. Nucl. Mater., vol. 496, pp. 97 – 108, 2017.
Contact Information
Website: https://fuelcycleseparations.ornl.gov/
Email: sfinkeld@uci.edu
Phone: (865) 919-5798
Address: University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2025
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Last updated on 2/14/2025.