PNNL

Andrew Ritzmann joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in 2017 after earning a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University (2005) and a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University (2016). Ritzmann previously worked as a quality assurance engineer in the software industry and as a high school physics teacher. His research has involved the use of a diverse set of computational techniques to analyze atomic-scale phenomena, laboratory experiments, and industrial processes. In prior research, he applied density functional theory to oxygen transport in solid oxide fuel cell materials to understand how chemical composition influences cathode performance. At PNNL, Ritzmann works on a diverse set of projects, including modeling the adsorption of iodine onto carbon surfaces, the transport of xenon through liquids and sorbent materials, liquid-liquid extraction processes, spent fuel dissolution, and the thermodynamics of high ionic strength solutions. His research is related to nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear forensics, and radioisotope production.

• Chemical engineering
• Chemical separations
• Chemical thermodynamics
• Computational modeling
• Thermodynamic modeling
• High-performance computing (HPC)
• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Density functional theory

• PhD in chemical engineering, Princeton University
• MA in chemical engineering, Princeton University
• BS in chemical engineering, Cornell University

• American Chemical Society

2024

• Beck, C.L., J.S. Cervantes, S. Chiswell, A.T. Greaney, K. Johnson, T.G. Levitskaia, and L. Martin, et al. 2024. “Review of Iodine Behavior from Nuclear Fuel Dissolution to Environmental Release.” RSC Advances 14, no. 48:35255 - 35274. PNNL-SA-203176. doi:10.1039/D4RA06494A