Derek Gaston

Background

About Derek Gaston

Dr. Derek Gaston is the Chief Computational Scientist for the Nuclear Science & Technology Directorate at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). His career at INL began in 2008 when he started the MOOSE Framework, the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment that has become the flagship infrastructure for nuclear modeling and simulation tools in a variety of areas including nuclear fuel performance (BISON), material evolution (Marmot), coupled neutronics (Griffin), thermal fluids (Pronghorn), and many others. MOOSE presented a novel approach to solving multiphysics problems with non-linear solvers which lead to its being honored with an R & D100 award in 2014. He received a second R & D100 award in 2023 for his work with Argonne National Laboratory on the project Cardinal. He earned his Ph.D. in computational nuclear engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2020, studying under advisors Dr. Benoit Forget and Dr. Kord Smith. He also holds a master of science in computational and applied mathematics from University of Texas and a bachelor of science in computer science from University of Missouri-Rolla (now known as Missouri University of Science and Technology).