Fourth-year Integrated Science student Michal Houpt has taken full advantage of studying at Canada’s nuclear university: From touring the nuclear reactor to hands-on learning. <\/p>\n
BY Jay Robb, Faculty of Science<\/p>\n
September 11, 2025<\/p>\n
\u00a0Michal Houpt<\/a>\u2019s just left a lecture where her professor told the class that McMaster is Canada\u2019s nuclear university.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houpt has been living proof of that, from her first to final year at Mac.\u00a0<\/p>\n In her first year, the Integrated Science student worked on a group project that did a deep dive into the science of nuclear energy. She went into the project with little knowledge. \u201cYou can look at a wind turbine and a solar panel and have a pretty good idea of how they work. That\u2019s not the case with a nuclear reactor unless you get a tour inside the building.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So that\u2019s what the group arranged, taking advantage of McMaster having a research reactor on campus. She says the behind-the-scenes tour was fascinating \u2013 standing over the cooling pond and seeing the bright blue glow of the reactor core was the highlight. Houpt came away from the project believing that nuclear energy will play a key role in powering the planet as a low-carbon source of electricity.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houpt returned to McMaster\u2019s nuclear reactor<\/a> at the end of her second year, landing a job as a tour guide. Groups of middle-school, high school and McMaster students get the high-level talk while industry professionals get the technical talk. And every group learns that it\u2019s Canada\u2019s most powerful research reactor, the country\u2019s only major neutron source and the world\u2019s leading supplier of iodine-125 \u2013 a cancer-treating medical isotope.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the end of her third year, Houpt was hired to work as a Canadian Nuclear Laboratories<\/a> (CNL) research assistant for the summer. She\u2019d read about CNL\u2019s collaboration with McMaster \u2013 the university is one of nine academic partners \u2013 while dealing with an acute case of FOMO. \u201cI was watching my friends join research groups and I didn\u2019t want to miss out.\u201d When applications opened for the 2025 cohort of CNL research assistants, Houpt was one of 175 science and engineering students who applied and among the 12 who were chosen.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houpt spent her entire summer working on a nuclear-related research project, with 14 weeks at McMaster supervised by physics professor Graeme Luke<\/a> and two weeks<\/a> at CNL\u2019s Chalk River Laboratories supervised by Zahra Yamani and Jeremy Dion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houpt felt at home in the heart of the Ottawa Valley \u2013 she\u2019d spent her childhood and teens as a camper and then a counsellor at Camp Kawartha. It\u2019s who she met at Chalk River that was the surprise. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect there\u2019d be so many scientists. I thought it would be all engineers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While there were lab and facility tours every day, there wasn\u2019t enough time to see everything on the sprawling campus. She got to look into yet another reactor core, this time CNL\u2019s Zero Energy Deuterium (ZED-2) Reactor used for reactor physics and nuclear fuel research.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now back at McMaster for her fourth and final year of undergrad, she\u2019s taking two courses in nuclear engineering and nuclear technology applications. <\/p>\n She\u2019s also getting a VIP tour of yet another major research centre, this time joining Luke\u2019s research group on their visit to TRIUMF<\/a>. Established in 1968 in Vancouver, Canada\u2019s particle accelerator centre is pushing the frontiers in isotope science and innovation, along with technologies to solve fundamental and applied problems in particle and nuclear physics plus materials and life sciences. Houpt will be using TRIUMF\u2019s equipment to put to the test the magnetic material she synthesized as a CNL research assistant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once back at Mac, she\u2019ll join a new research group to work on her fourth-year research thesis. Houpt will be studying magnetic liquids with physics professor Kari Dalnoki-Veress<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s totally unrelated to the work I\u2019ve being doing but it\u2019s still in materials science. I can\u2019t wait to discover the physics behind it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Houpt has yet to decide what and where she\u2019ll study as a graduate student next fall. Continuing to do nuclear research is a definite possibility. \u201cThere\u2019s such an incredible range of nuclear research happening and it\u2019s a way to make a positive difference in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n