Dr. Hamid Aït Abderrahim of Université Catholique de Louvain

Biography:

General Manager of MYRRHA aisbl/ivzw, Professor at the mechanical engineering department of the “Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain (EPL)” – “Université Catholique de Louvain” (UCLouvain), Member of the Standing Advisory Group on Nuclear Energy (SAGNE) for the Director General of the IAEA, Vice-Chair of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) of OECD/NEA

Since 01 July 2022 Prof. Dr. Hamid Aït Abderrahim is the General Manager of MYRRHA aisbl/ivzw. He was Deputy Director-General of SCK CEN, the Belgian nuclear research center. He lectures reactor physics and nuclear engineering at the “Université Catholique de Louvain” (UCLouvain) at the mechanical engineering department of the “Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain (EPL)”. Since 1998, he is the director of the MYRRHA project, an accelerator driven system (ADS) coupling a sub-critical Pb-Bi cooled reactor and a high power proton linear accelerator through a spallation target. He is or has been coordinator of various projects of the European Commission framework programme related to advanced nuclear systems and the advanced nuclear fuel cycle.

He is member of various scientific councils or research organisations or international institutes such as:

• Member of the Standing Advisory Group on Nuclear Energy (SAGNE) for the Director General of the IAEA
• Vice-Chair of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) of OECD/NEA
• Member of the Scientific Council of EDF (Electricité de France)
• Member of the International Advisory Committee of J-PARC: Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex
• Member of the International Scientific Committee of TRANSMUTEX (TISC)
• Vice-Chair of the Belgian Nuclear Society, BNS
• Member of the Belgian section of the World Energy Council
• Member of the « Energy Club Algeria”, which brings together Algerian individuals active in various fields of the energy sector. He is a Member of the Scientific Council of the Energy Club Algeria since 2024.
• Past-Chairman of SNETP – Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform
• Past Member of the Scientific Councils of the Nuclear Research Center of Birine of COMENA in Algeria

He is author of more than 100 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences. In February 2016 he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa at the Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania for his personal achievements and his long term collaboration with the Kaunas University of Technology and more specifically with the Baršauskas Ultrasound Research Institute. In September 2024, he received the Global Award from the International Nuclear Societies Council (INSC)for his entire career, leadership and perseverance in the field of sustainable nuclear energy, the closure of the fuel cycle, and the development of the MYRRHA project.

Event Moderator: Dr. Cinzia Da Vià

Biography:

Cinzia Da Vià received her PhD in Physics at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, working at the European Center for Particle Physics (CERN) on radiation detectors and their spinoff applications to medicine, while being awarded a CERN fellowship. In 2006 she formed and led an international collaboration to develop a novel detector design (3D) with unprecedented radiation tolerance and speed, which was successfully installed in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012. She is the Independent Committee co-chair of the EU ATTRACT Initiative which supports innovative radiation imaging technology research projects in Europe and is the Chief Editor of the Frontiers in Physics, Radiation Detectors and Imaging Journal and co-authored a book on 3D-radiation detectors. She is currently a member of the European Physical Society Technology and Innovation Group and a member of the IEEE Panel on Climate Change. She is a regular Speaker, Chair, and International Scientific Committee Member of several conferences and Instrumentation Schools. Since 2016 she has shared her time between Stony Brook University and The University of Manchester, UK.