Michal Houpt’s just left a lecture where her professor told the class that McMaster is Canada’s nuclear university. 

Houpt has been living proof of that, from her first to final year at Mac. 

In her first year, the Integrated Science student worked on a group project that did a deep dive into the science of nuclear energy. She went into the project with little knowledge. “You can look at a wind turbine and a solar panel and have a pretty good idea of how they work. That’s not the case with a nuclear reactor unless you get a tour inside the building.” 

So that’s what the group arranged, taking advantage of McMaster having a research reactor on campus. She says the behind-the-scenes tour was fascinating – standing over the cooling pond and seeing the bright blue glow of the reactor core was the highlight. Houpt came away from the project believing that nuclear energy will play a key role in powering the planet as a low-carbon source of electricity. 

Houpt returned to McMaster’s nuclear reactor at the end of her second year, landing a job as a tour guide. Groups of middle-school, high school and McMaster students get the high-level talk while industry professionals get the technical talk. And every group learns that it’s Canada’s most powerful research reactor, the country’s only major neutron source and the world’s leading supplier of iodine-125 – a cancer-treating medical isotope. 

At the end of her third year, Houpt was hired to work as a Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) research assistant for the summer. She’d read about CNL’s collaboration with McMaster – the university is one of nine academic partners – while dealing with an acute case of FOMO. “I was watching my friends join research groups and I didn’t want to miss out.” When applications opened for the 2025 cohort of CNL research assistants, Houpt was one of 175 science and engineering students who applied and among the 12 who were chosen. 

Houpt spent her entire summer working on a nuclear-related research project, with 14 weeks at McMaster supervised by physics professor Graeme Luke and two weeks at CNL’s Chalk River Laboratories supervised by Zahra Yamani and Jeremy Dion. 

Houpt felt at home in the heart of the Ottawa Valley – she’d spent her childhood and teens as a camper and then a counsellor at Camp Kawartha. It’s who she met at Chalk River that was the surprise. “I didn’t expect there’d be so many scientists. I thought it would be all engineers.” 

While there were lab and facility tours every day, there wasn’t enough time to see everything on the sprawling campus. She got to look into yet another reactor core, this time CNL’s Zero Energy Deuterium (ZED-2) Reactor used for reactor physics and nuclear fuel research. 

Now back at McMaster for her fourth and final year of undergrad, she’s taking two courses in nuclear engineering and nuclear technology applications.

She’s also getting a VIP tour of yet another major research centre, this time joining Luke’s research group on their visit to TRIUMF. Established in 1968 in Vancouver, Canada’s particle accelerator centre is pushing the frontiers in isotope science and innovation, along with technologies to solve fundamental and applied problems in particle and nuclear physics plus materials and life sciences. Houpt will be using TRIUMF’s equipment to put to the test the magnetic material she synthesized as a CNL research assistant. 

Once back at Mac, she’ll join a new research group to work on her fourth-year research thesis. Houpt will be studying magnetic liquids with physics professor Kari Dalnoki-Veress. “It’s totally unrelated to the work I’ve being doing but it’s still in materials science. I can’t wait to discover the physics behind it.” 

Houpt has yet to decide what and where she’ll study as a graduate student next fall. Continuing to do nuclear research is a definite possibility. “There’s such an incredible range of nuclear research happening and it’s a way to make a positive difference in the world.” 

For first-year science students wanting to get involved in research, joining the Faculty of Science’s Office of Undergraduate Research mailing list is the place to start – the office is a first at Mac and at universities across Canada.

Houpt also recommends reaching out to professors. “It can be intimidating. But the worst thing that could happen is they don’t reply to your email. The best thing that can happen is a great experience.”