Claire is in her 4th year of her Ph.D. in the Noël group working on research about the safe disposal of spent nuclear fuel in Canada. Claire has been with the group since 2017, when she started working as an undergraduate research student with Dr. Shoesmith. Since then, she completed her undergraduate thesis with Dr. Noël and transitioned into her graduate studies. Claire has experience with surface analysis techniques and electrochemistry that she uses to investigate material degradation.
Claire’s research focuses on the corrosion of copper materials in contact with bentonite clay when exposed to various conditions. Her experiments are currently being conducted in the Pacific Ocean and 300 m deep in Canadian boreholes. Claire utilizes multiple surface analysis techniques to evaluate the corrosion damage to the samples to help inform the Nuclear Waste Management Organization about their engineered barrier repository.