Levente Balogh

Queen's University

Asssitant Professor - Engineering

Following the completion of his PhD in physics in Hungary, Levente completed postdocs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Queen’s University. He was employed as a research scientist at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories before joining Queen’s faculty as a member of the McDonald Institute. His work focuses mainly on the effects of radiation on metals – it can lead to swelling and embrittlement of nuclear reactor components. Research advancing understanding of radiation damage is crucial for safe operating of current and next-generation reactors. Levente uses the accelerator at Queen’s’ Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory (RMTL) to bombard materials with high energy protons and investigates their effect with x-ray diffraction and microscopy to better understand radiation-induced damage.

The accelerator at the RMTL is also used to generate neutrons, and Levente’s work with the McDonald Institute uses this neutron radiation to test and calibrate dark matter detector prototypes, as well as various other experiments. He also uses X-ray diffraction and microscopy methods for materials characterization in relation to McDonald Institute experiments.

Contact Information:
Room 312B, Nicol Hall
Mechanical and Materials Engineering,
Queen’s University,
Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada.
Phone: (613) 533-6000 ext. 74570
email: levente.balogh@queensu.ca

• Department Website

What appealed to you about the McDonald Institute?

“The interdisciplinary nature of the McDonald Institute was very attractive, as it opens the door to new opportunities and new collaborations. Also, I was glad to have the opportunity to connect with the field of astroparticle physics. As a physics student, when I had to specialize, the two directions I was considering were materials science and astrophysics. I ended up choosing materials science, thus my past research is focused on that area, but my interest in astrophysics-related topics remained.”

Why did you choose physics?

“I am a curious person by nature. I was always interested in understanding the details of natural phenomena and the basic science behind technology. From all the natural sciences physics aspires to describe the world we see around us on the most fundamental level, which is why I chose to study it.”

Something that may surprise your students?

“I like sci-fi, I like British humour… What’s my favourite book? Easy to guess!.”

(Editor’s note: It’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)