Sannah van Balen

Sannah van Balen is a final-year PhD candidate at the Cambridge University Engineering Department. Her research investigates how the radiological protection principles of justification and optimisation are interpreted within national legislative and regulatory frameworks, and how they are applied in nuclear engineering contexts. She also lectures on radiological protection for students in the MPhil in Nuclear Energy and co-supervises master's theses within her area of expertise.
She is active in the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) as a mentee of Task Group 124 on the Application of the Principle of Justification. Prior to her PhD, she worked in the Netherlands as an energy transition consultant, advising policymakers and industry on decarbonisation technologies and strategies. 

Over the years, Sannah has served as master of ceremonies for panel sessions, events, and conferences on nuclear energy, including NRG PALLAS's first two editions of the Nuclear Innovation Conference (NIC), Urenco's Leonardo Da Vinci Cascade Opening Event, and Cambridge's Nuclear And Radiological Risk Summit. It is an honour for her to contribute in this role to the third edition of the NIC focused on Connecting Nuclear.