Julien de Troullioud de Lanversin completed his PhD at Princeton University's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department in September 2019. He has been a member of SGS since 2014. Julien received his Diplôme d’Ingénieur (M.Sc. and B.Sc.Eng.) from Ecole Centrale de Marseille in 2014. The same year he also obtained a M.Sc. in Nuclear Science and Engineering from the Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he was a recipient of the Chinese Government Scholarship. Julien was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and a research fellow at the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Julien is now an Assistant Professor in the Division of Public Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
Research Interests
Julien is interested in how to verify and reconstruct past fissile material production programs with scientific tools. To this end, he is developing innovative methods that use isotopic analysis from nuclear reactors to gain information on their past operation (nuclear archeology) and he is designing an open-source software that can follow the isotopic evolution in time of fissile materials. His current research looks at the various modalities of the production of plutonium and tritium in production reactors and how transparency on tritium could be used to improve estimates on plutonium stockpiles. Julien also studies security questions related to civil and military nuclear programs in Northeast Asia through the lens of fissile material, with a focus on China and North Korea.
Publications
J. de Troullioud de Lanversin, M. Göttsche, and A. Glaser, Nuclear Archaeology to Distinguish Plutonium and Tritium Production Modes in Heavy Water Reactors, Science & Global Security, 26, January 14, 2019.
M. Kütt, J. de Troullioud de Lanversin, and M. Göttsche, Understanding Uncertainties in Nuclear Archaeology, 59th Annual INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 2018.
J. de Troullioud de Lanversin, M. Göttsche, and A. Glaser, Nuclear Archaeology to Distinguish Different Plutonium and Other Isotope Production Modes, 58th Annual INMM Meeting, July 17-21, 2017, Indian Wells, California.
M. Göttsche, J. de Troullioud de Lanversin, and Holger Tietze-Jaensch, Examining Reprocessing Waste to Help Estimate Past Plutonium Production, 58th Annual INMM Meeting, July 17-21, 2017, Indian Wells, California.
J. de Troullioud de Lanversin, A. Glaser, and M. Göttsche, Toward an Open-source Neutronics Code for Circulating-fuel Reactors, 25th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE25), July 2-6, 2017, Shanghai.
Teaching
Assistant in Instruction (AI), Science and Global Security: From Nuclear Weapons to Cyberwarfare and Artificial Intelligence (WWS/MAE 353, Spring 2017). This course provides students with a basic technical understanding of some of the critical technologies that are relevant to national and global security and will equip students with the skills to better assess the challenge of developing effective policies to manage such technologies. Case studies include nuclear weapons and their proliferation, nuclear and radiological terrorism, space weapons, biosecurity and cyberwarfare.
Assistant in Instruction (AI), Mathematics in Engineering I (MAE 501, Fall 2016). A treatment of the theory and applications of ordinary differential equations with an introduction to partial differential equations. The objective is to provide the student with an ability to solve standard problems in this field.
Talks
Nuclear Detective, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Annual Research Day, Princeton University, September 15, 2017.
Nuclear Warhead Authentication: The Template Approach, 27th International Summer Symposium on Science and World Affairs, Nagasaki, Japan, July 2015.
Plutonium and Nuclear Terrorism, 25th International Summer Symposium on Science and World Affairs, Segni, Italy, July 2013.