Dr Đorđe Petrović wins the ENS High Scientific Council PhD Award 2025
The ENS High Scientific Council brings together 25 scientists from 19 countries. For the 2025 edition of the ENS HSC PhD Award, the Council received eleven nominations from ENS member Societies: namely the Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Israeli, Italian, Spanish, Swiss, UK and Ukrainian Nuclear Societies.
ENS Members Societies provided candidates’ CVs, an extended summary of her/his PhD work, related articles and patents she/he co-authored, and a recommendation letter from her/his national society to the ENS secretariat.
Having examined all this information, the HSC met in Brussels on April 23-24 and selected four out of these 11 candidates to enter the final stage of the contest:
- Dr Đorđe Petrović (Belgium) “On the Physics of a Core Disruptive Accident in a Heavy Liquid Metal Fast Reactor | Case Study: MYRRHA”
- Dr David Breitenmoser (Switzerland) “Towards Monte Carlo-based Full Spectrum Modelling of Airborne Gamma-Ray Spectrometry Systems”
- Dr Theo Boutin (France) “Real-time deviation detection during welding implantation by experimental analysis and machine learning”
- Dr Ondrej Novak (Czech Republic) “Development of an experimental device for the study of neutron flux density deformation due to the drop of the control rod into the reactor core”
On 2-3 December 2025, the ENS HSC invited the finalists for a technical tour to the Heysham Nuclear Power Plant, United Kingdom, where the group had the opportunity to visit the facility.
The audition took place in Manchester, and after a long debate, Chairman Eric Proust announced that Dr Đorđe Petrović received the ENS HSC PhD Award 2025 with a prize of 2000 euros. Three other competitors have received the Laureate title.
The Award ceremony in person will be organised at any possible conference in 2026.
