Silvina Cancelos

Prof. Silvina Cancelos, holds a B.S and a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the Balseiro Institute located in the Bariloche Atomic Center (CNEA) of Argentina and she earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where she conducted research on the effect of cavitating bubbles on biological tissues. She also holds a M.S in Biomedical Engineering from RPI.  She joined the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez (UPRM) in July 2008 as a tenure-track assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering (ME) where she established the Bubble Dynamics Laboratory (BDL).

Dr. Cancelos' research group uses advanced experimental techniques for visualization of multiphase flows to improve designs, efficiencies, and safety of current water-based reactors, as well as IV generation molten salt technologies. The Bubble Dynamics Laboratory (BDL) at the University of Puerto Rico has experience designing experiments for direct visualization of boiling flow and bubble formation, dynamic and departure from surface using state-of-the-art particle image velocimetry (PIV), shadow sizing techniques and imaging process methods. Dr. Cancelos has been Associate Director of the ME Department since 2020 and she was the lead of a curricular revision  that was implemented in the Fall 2023. The revision reduces the number of credits while strengthening student performance based on the program constituents' feedback and assessment tools and strategies. Additionally, Dr. Cancelos is the advisor of the ANS UPRM student section and she has been working together with the board of directors for creating a minor in nuclear engineering at UPRM. Moreover, she also co-founded SIL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, an spin off company from the BDL that managed to secure 3 SBIR projects from the National Science Foundation and from the National Institutes of Health.