Awards Selected for the Air Force High Energy Laser Multidisciplinary Research Initiative Published July 22, 2010 By Staff Writers Air Force Office of Scientific Research ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is pleased to announce that it will award approximately $4.2 million per year for the next three years in basic research grants to eight scientists and engineers who submitted winning research proposals through the High Energy Laser-Joint Technology Office sponsored High Energy Laser Multidisciplinary Research Initiative. The HEL MRI program was open to scientists and engineers from American universities and research institutions. Industrial partners and international institutions were allowed to participate in this solicitation as subcontractors, but not as the primary awardees. Overall, competition for the awards was extremely high. There were four major thrust areas being solicited under the HEL MRI, sponsored by the HEL-JTO and the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Science and Technology. The primary focus of these awards is to enhance the capabilities of the U.S. institutions of higher education to perform basic science and engineering research related to lasers, optics, laser interaction physics and advanced concepts necessary for national defense applications. AFOSR, in conjunction with other government officials throughout the other services' offices of scientific research, selected the winning proposals based on the evaluation criteria listed in the broad agency announcement. Those selected will receive the grants over a three-year period with additional two-year options available upon program success. The recipients and their research areas are presented below according to the topic for which they were selected. Topic 1: Novel Components for High Energy Lasers Dr. Eric Johnson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte will be studying 3-D meta-optics for high energy lasers. Dr. Wolfgang Rudolph of the University of New Mexico will be developing, modeling and testing optical coatings with novel thermal and stress management for high energy laser applications. Topic 2: Ultra-Short, Ultra-Intense Pulse Lasers and Laser Effects Dr. Martin Richardson of the University of Central Florida will be studying the fundamentals of filament interaction. Topic 3: Laser Interactions Dr. Vladimir Semak of the Pennsylvania State University will be performing theoretical modeling and experimental verification for the physical and chemical effects of fast airflow during high energy laser interaction with materials. Dr. Glenn Perram of the Air Force Institute of Technology will be studying merging hyperspectral imagery and multi-scale modeling for laser lethality. Topic 4: Materials, Devices and Techniques for High Average Power Solid-State Lasers Dr. Liang Dong of Clemson University will be studying advanced optical fibers for high power fiber lasers. Dr. Leonid Glebov of the University of Central Florida will be exploring volume Bragg gratings-research, testing and high power applications. Dr. Robert Byer of Stanford University will study the research and development of high energy 2-micron lasers based on Tm: doped ceramic laser gain media and Tm: doped optical fibers.