AFRLscientist garners Outstanding Engineers and Scientists Award Published Aug. 8, 2008 By Mindy Cooper AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Dr. F. Kenneth Hopkins, portfolio manager for Directed Energy with the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, has received the 2007-2008 Outstanding Engineers and Scientists Award in the Technical Leadership Category from the 15,000-member Affiliate Societies Council of Dayton, Ohio. "Dr. Hopkins was nominated in recognition of his world-class technical leadership in photonic and electro-optical materials development as well as enabling future directed energy systems," said Mr. Tim Schumacher, Survivability and Sensor Materials Division Chief, "He has been singularly responsible for the technical maturation of a variety of technical areas that have significant impact on today's military weapon systems. " While impacting infrared countermeasure (IRCM) systems through his materials development efforts, he simultaneously cultivated leadership by his in-house research team to investigate many revolutionary areas of photonics, such as DNA biopolymers. His vision has been leveraged by the commercial sector as evidenced by current optical detection systems being utilized in factory automation schemes today," Schumacher added. Dr. Hopkins began his career in the Air Force in 1987 with an effort to develop photonic and nonlinear optical materials. His entrepreneurial efforts resulted in a world-class technical team with a healthy contractual component that has had a significant impact on several military applications. More recently, Dr. Hopkins successfully proposed a materials focus within the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate on Directed Energy. Soon after, he was named the Directed Energy portfolio manager, the first one of eight within the directorate responsible for planning and prioritization of the Directorate's budget. He provides technical leadership to cross-Directorate and cross-AFRL teams in the development of new material efforts supporting future high-energy lasers, high-power microwave systems, and infrared countermeasure systems. Under his leadership, materials are now being developed that exhibit revolutionary improvements that will enable military game-changing performance. Dr. Hopkins' leadership and vision have been instrumental to a number of critical military technologies as exemplified by his successful work in the development and transition of non-linear optical materials such as zinc germanium diphosphide (ZnGeP2, or simply ZGP) for infrared countermeasure systems for protecting aircraft, Schumacher said. The materials enable the generation of all of the laser wavelengths needed for countering infrared seekers. He assembled and led a multi-organizational team from three directorates of AFRL as well as from the National Air & Space Intelligence Center, the Air Force Academy, and several universities that overcame many technical obstacles in the production of these materials. He designed a program that began with revolutionary crystal growth and processing techniques and successfully ended in reliably growing large ZGP crystals with 1000x improved transparency and significantly improved power-handling capability. Through this work, Dr. Hopkins has been credited with enabling the success of AFRL's Laser Infrared Flight Experiment Advanced Technology Demonstration, the DARPA/Tri-Service Mid-IR Laser, the Large Aircraft Multi-Band System (LAMBS) Laser, and a new laser capability in AFRL Directed Energy Directorate for effects-based testing. These efforts have also resulted in the fielding of laser-based IRCM systems for protecting aircraft from threats. According to Schumacher, the breadth of other technical achievements realized under Dr. Hopkins' leadership are extraordinary, such as DNA derived bio-polymers with outstanding optical and electronic properties for electro-optic modulators, light-emitting diodes, field effect transistors and lasers; and conductive cladding layers in polymer-based electro-optic modulators. These efforts have led to significantly lower operating voltages; an electro-optic composite material with enhanced nonlinearity compared to its constituents; and the development of the best materials, to date, for photon entanglement, to name a few. The award was presented in March, at the Affiliate Societies Council Awards Banquet in the Ballroom of the Kennedy Union at the University of Dayton.