Research InterestDr. Suikkanen has over 10 years of experience in nuclear engineering research, especially in the numerical modelling of gas-cooled reactor systems, such as pebble bed high temperature gas cooled reactors, for which he has developed coupled multi-physics calculation methods covering reactor physics, thermal-hydraulics and pebble bed mechanics. In addition, he has experience in reactor physics and fuel behavior analyses of light water reactors. Dr. Suikkanen has been involved in several academic as well as more industry-oriented research projects and several expert groups. Most recently he has led a work package on nuclear criticality safety in an EU funded research project in which a new fuel design was developed for older reactor types of Russian design.
Teaching ExperienceDr. Suikkanen has over 10 years of experience in teaching university level courses. He has been involved as a teacher in several nuclear engineering courses ranging from the BSc level basic courses (e.g. Introduction to nuclear energy, Fundamentals of nuclear engineering) to more advanced MSc level courses (e.g. Nuclear reactor dynamics, Applied reactor physics) as well as in more general courses, such as numerical methods in heat and mass transfer. Since 2017, he has also lectured in the national nuclear safety course YJK (formerly known as the YK course) organized annually for the professionals working in the nuclear field in Finland. Dr. Suikkanen has completed 12 ECTS worth of university pedagogy training. He has also experience in supervision of several MSc and BSc theses.