Angelo State Professor Awarded $627K for Particle Accelerator Research

SAN ANGELO, TX - Dr. Mohammad Shafinul Haque of Angelo State University's mechanical engineering faculty has been awarded a $627,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a collaborative research project with the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois dealing with high-entropy alloys (HEAs).

Titled "Modeling Ion-Irradiated Mechanical Properties of Novel High-Power Target Materials," the three-year project will be led by Haque as principal investigator, along with Dr. Kavin Ammigan at Fermilab as co-investigator. It is a continuation of preliminary studies they conducted during Fermilab's Visiting Faculty Program.

The project aims to develop a reliable framework to accelerate the development of novel HEAs for advanced accelerator target applications. The focus will be on identifying specific HEA compositions tailored for accelerator beam window applications, ensuring enhanced reliability and extended lifetimes of these components in next-generation facilities, such as the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility at Fermilab and the proposed Muon collider.

As part of the project, ASU undergraduate students and a new postdoctoral researcher will have the opportunity to work on the project and receive hands-on training at Fermilab in material preparation, nano-indentation testing and characterization techniques. The grant will also fund the purchase of advanced scientific equipment at ASU to aid with the research.

"This project will build sustained research capacity at Angelo State," Haque said. "It will also expand our technical expertise in testing and constitutive modeling, as well as foster workforce development, with multiple students participating over the three-year project. Our improved research capability will also enable the pursuit of additional core research funding to benefit our students and the global community."

An associate professor in the David L. Hirschfeld Department of Engineering, Haque joined the ASU faculty in 2018. His primary teaching areas include mechanical engineering, engineering materials, capstone design, machine and power system design, and measurement and instrumentation. He has published his research in respected industry journals, including the International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping and the ASME Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, and he has given multiple presentations at professional conferences. He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso.