September 5, 2024
By Ashley Ritchie

Fan Zhang, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering’s Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics (NREMP) program, has been selected as a Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Georgia Tech.

The Class of 1969 Teaching Fellows experience is designed to gather together an interdisciplinary group of assistant professors for pedagogically-focused support and professional development. The aim is to broaden perspectives with insight into evidence-based best practices and exposure to new and innovative teaching methods.

“I am thrilled to join this cohort of passionate educators and to learn from both the program and my peers,” said Zhang, who joined the Woodruff School faculty in 2021. “I look forward to applying evidence-based teaching practices, especially as my classes bring together students from a variety of majors.”

Zhang will have the option of earning a “Reflective Teacher” badge after implementing evidence-based teaching practices and submitting documentation and reflections. In addition, she will be given access to $1000 in funds that can be used to support the development of a small project, or for other teaching-related resources.

Zhang serves as the director of the Intelligence for Advanced Nuclear (iFAN) Lab at Georgia Tech. Her research primarily focuses on nuclear cybersecurity, online monitoring, fault detection, digital twins, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and robotics.

Zhang is the recipient of the 2021 Ted Quinn Early Career Award from the American Nuclear Society for her contributions in the fields of instrumentation and control and cybersecurity. In 2022, she was awarded the inaugural Distinguished Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy. She actively contributes to global nuclear cybersecurity research and education through the International Atomic Energy Agency. Zhang is a Georgia Tech College of Engineering Cybersecurity Fellow. In 2023, she was invited by the National Academy of Engineering to attend the EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium as one of 51 highly accomplished early-career engineers.

She received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and an M.S. in statistics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2019. She was selected to the Class of 2023 Volunteer 40 Under 40 for her professional achievements and broad research impact.