Edwards Air Force Base, CA
10-19-07
Air Force invests $9.5 in research program
by Air Force Office of Scientific Research Public Affairs
10/19/2007 - ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Air Force Office of Scientific Research
announced Oct. 19 it will award $9.5 million in grants to 29 scientists and
engineers who submitted winning research proposals through the Air Force's
Young Investigator Research Program.
The program is open to scientists and engineers at research institutions across
the United States. Those selected will receive the grants over a three-year
period.
According to AFOSR officials, competition for Young Investigator Research
Program grants is intense. AFOSR received 215 proposals in response to the
AFOSR broad agency announcement solicitation in major areas of interests to
the Air Force. These areas include: aerospace, chemical and material sciences;
mathematics, information and life sciences; and physics and electronics. AFOSR
officials selected proposals based on the evaluation criteria listed in the broad
agency announcement.
The program supports scientists and engineers who have received Ph.D. or
equivalent degrees in the last five years. Grant recipients must show exceptional
ability and promise for conducting basic research. The objective of this program
is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering, enhance early
career development of outstanding young investigators, and increase
opportunities for the young investigators to recognize the Air Force mission and
the related challenges in science and engineering.
The recipients and their anticipated research areas are:
> Dr. Joanna Austin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will focus on
hypervelocity boundary layer studies for axisymmetric engine flowpaths.
> Dr. Jonathan Black, Air Force Institute of Technology, will work on hybrid
laser/video 3-D non-contact motion capture and analysis.
> Dr. Shannon Blunt, University of Kansas, will research intra-pulse radarembedded communications.
>Dr. Roman Boulatov, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will develop
new method to acquire chemomechanical parameters of diverse chemical
reactions.
> Dr. Marcus Buehler, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will investigate
structural hierarchies in biomimetic materials: protein inspired de novo materials.
> Dr. Stephen Cronin, University of Southern California, will study nanoplasmonic
catalysis for synthetic fuel production.
> Dr. Daniel Forger, University of Michigan, will work on physiology modeling of
circadian timekeeping.
> Dr. Anthony Grbic, University of Michigan, will find a new approach to
manipulating electromagnetic fields: nearfield focusing plates.
> Dr. Kevin Hamlen, University of Texas at Dallas, will study automated, certified
program-rewriting for software security enforcement.
> Dr. Wesley Henderson, North Carolina State University, will investigate
biomass processing using ionic liquids for jet fuel production.
> Dr. Michael Hochberg, University of Washington, will develop nanophotonic
devices in silicon for nonlinear optics.
> Dr. Scott Jensen, Utah State University, will conduct studies for utilizing
cryogenic magnetohydrodynamics in multi-fuctional electro-mechancial systems.
> Dr. Chunqi Jiang, University of Southern California, will research improved
imaging and serial assessment of carotid atherosclerosis.
> Dr. Anne Katherine Jones, Arizona State University, will focus on engineering
oxidoreductases: utilization of an unnatural amino acid to create artificial
hydrogenases.
> Dr. Asian Kasimov, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will investigate
accurate numerical simulation and analysis of multi-dimensional shock and
detonation waves.
> Dr. Michael Kesseler, Iowa State University, will work on new cynate ester
resins modified with nanoparticles for inclusion in continuous fiber
reinforced composites.
> Dr. Heather Lewandowski, University of Colorado, will study resonant energy
transfer in a system of cold trapped molecules.
> Dr. Xiaoqin Li, University of Texas at Austin, will focus on probing spin waves
using brillouin lighting scattering.
> Dr. Shriram Ramanathan, Harvard College, will work on exploratory phase
transition-based switches using functional oxides.
> Dr. Johannes Royset, Naval Postgraduate School, will investigate adaptive
precision adjustment for efficient optimization of complex systems.
> Dr. Yuri Shprits, University of California at Los Angeles, will study modeling of
the origin and energization of the inner radiation belt electrons and phenomena
that mediates it.
> Dr. Leon Shterengas, State University of New York at Stony Brook, will
investigate Holmium doped solid state lasers resonantly pumped and q-switched
by novel GaSb-based photonic devices.
> Dr. Irfan Siddiqi, University of California at Berkeley, will conduct research on
single bohr magneton detector: the ultimate probe of manomagetism with
quantum-limited resolution.
> Dr. Brian Thurow, Auburn University, will work on the development and
application of a high-speed three-dimensional density measurement technique
for aero-optic applications.
> Dr. Guido Verbeck, University of North Texas, will address development of
novel preparative mass spectrometry instrumentation for the advancement of
new materials and nanofabrication.
> Dr. Miao Yu, University of Maryland at College Park, will investigate fly ear
inspired miniature acoustic sensors for detection and localization.
> Dr. Y.-H. Percival Zhang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, will
focus on accelerating the rate-limiting step in novel enzymatic carbohydrate-tohydrogen technology by enzyme engineering.
> Dr. Yi Zhang, University of California at Santa Cruz, will research adaptive
information filtering.
> Dr. Lizhong Zheng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will study dynamic
wireless networks based on open physical media.