Kay Song
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Area of Specialisation: small-scale mechanical testing
Working across Key Challenge 2, Key Challenge 4.
Kay Song completed a physics degree at the Australian National University in 2018, with her honours thesis focused on the characterisation of helium plasma exposure on the recrystallisation of tungsten for fusion reactor divertor applications. After that, she continued her research in nuclear fusion materials by taking in a PhD at the University of Oxford. Her work was primarily on the characterisation of ion-irradiation effects on iron chromium alloys. She combined a range of mechanical testing, electron microscopy, and synchrotron X-ray techniques to study irradiation-induced changes in material properties and defect populations.
She brings her expertise to her postdoctoral research role in the MIDAS programme by applying small-scale testing to further understand the effects of irradiation on the mechanical properties of zirconium.
Working with neutron-irradiated alloys means that Kay often uses the active facilities at the Materials Research Facility at Culham to characterise samples, with the use of such facilities being a key component of the work undertaken as part of MIDAS.