Air Force Awards $13.1 Million to Universities for Research Equipment

  • Published
  • AFOSR
ARLINGTON, VA --  The Air Force Office of Scientific Research here recently announced plans to award $13.1 million to 44 academic institutions to support the purchase of research instrumentation under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program - DURIP.

AFOSR selected 58 projects to fund after reviewing 282 proposals requesting $78.3 million. These awards are the result of a merit competition for DURIP funding conducted by the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and AFOSR. An overview of the program, selection criteria, submission deadlines and more can be viewed on the AFOSR web site at http://www.afosr.af.mil/Documents/funding_DURIP07BAA-f1a.pdf.

Each office requested proposals from university investigators working in areas of importance to DoD. This includes research related to information technology, remote sensing, propulsion, electronics and electro-optics, advanced materials, and ocean science and engineering. In response to the requests, the research offices collectively received 780 proposals, requesting $220 million in support for research equipment.

DURIP supports the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment costing between $50,000 and $1 million that augments current university capabilities or develops new university capabilities to perform cutting-edge defense research.

The lead authors of the winning proposals and a brief description of the instrumentation or research supported are:

Scott A. Banta, Columbia University, N.Y., "Circular Dichroism Spectrometer for Investigating Protein Behavior." 

Malcolm R. Beasley, Stanford University, Calif., "Ultra-high Vacuum Cryogenic Micromanipulator Probe System." 

Carlos E. S. Cesnik, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Mich., "Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometer for Structural Damage Assessment." 

Aditi Chattopadhyay, Arizona State University, Ariz., "Tracking Damage Nucleation and Propagation in Metallic Materials." 

Michael Cooney, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii, "Pore Structure Analysis of Bioelectrocatalytic Electrodes." 

Charles Czeisler, Harvard Medical School, Mass., "Monitoring Human Alertness for Improving Performance and Safety." 

Marc de Graef, Carnegie Mellon University, Pa., "Robotized Metallographic Equipment with Automated Pattern Analysis." 

Karen de Mesy, Bentley University of Rochester, N.Y., "Analytical Transmission Electron Microscope." 

Scott A. DeLoach, Kansas State University, Kan., "Test-bed for Intelligent, Mobile Sensors." 

Nikolaus Dietz, Georgia State University, Ga., "High-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition to Grow Indium-rich III-Nitrides." 

David F. Dinges, University of Pennsylvania, Pa., "Optimizing Performance through Sleep-wake Homeostasis." 

Aristide Dogariu, University of Central Florida, Fla., "Spatially-resolved Polarimetric Subwavelength Measurements." 

Robert Dynes, University of California at Berkeley, Calif., "Reactive Ion Etch for Patterning High Aspect Ratio Nanostructures." 

Danilo Erricolo, University of Illinois at Chicago, Ill., "Near-field Scanner for High Frequency Electromagnetic Field Measurements. 

Robert Feigelson, Stanford University, Calif., "Thermal Analysis System for Advanced Ceramics." 

Jason Fleischer, Princeton University, N.J., "Wave-kinetic Dynamics in Statistical Nonlinear Optics." 

Alec D. Gallimore, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Mich., "Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy Diagnostic for Hall Thruster Erosion." 

Brian Gleeson, Iowa State University, Iowa, "Thermal Analysis for High Temperature Materials." 

William Goodhue, University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Mass., "Instrumentation for Processing High Quality Antimonide Materials." 

H. Thomas Hahn, University of California at Los Angeles, Calif., "X-Ray Tomography for Three-Dimensional Microstructure Characterization." 

Doug Hansen, University of Dayton, Ohio, "Amino Acid Hydrolysis System for Investigating Growth of Ceramic Films." 

Lene V. Hau, Harvard University, Mass., "Nanotube Sculpting for Quantum Control with Cold Atoms." 

William Helton, Michigan Technological University, Mich., "Human-Robot Interactions."
Jonathan P. How, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mass., "Indoor Multi-Vehicle Flight Test Capability." 

Alex Jen, University of Washington, Wash., "Thermal Evaporator System for Fabricating Organic Optoelectronics." 

Anthony Joseph, University of California at Berkeley, Calif., "Testbed for Cyber-Security." 

Christine Julien, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, "Mobile, Distributed and Pervasive Computing Test Bed." 

Madhavi P. Kadakia, Wright State University, Ohio, "Optical Inverted Microscope Imaging System." 

Fazeel Khan, Miami University, Ohio, "Morphing Structures for Aircraft using Shape Memory Polymers." 

Lyon B. King, Michigan Technological University, Mich., "Microplasma Device Characterization." 

Leslie A. Kolodziejski, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mass., "Plasma Etching of Complex Combinations of III-V Heterostructures." 

John Kouvetakis, Arizona State University, Ariz., "Hybrid Molecular Deposition for Low Temperature Materials Synthesis." 

Waltraud M. Kriven, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ill., "Micropore and Chemisorption System for Geopolymeric Materials Study." 

Andres H. LaRosa, Portland State University, Ore., "Probing Surface and Bio-interfaces with Single Molecule Sensitivity." 

Ying-Cheng Lai, Arizona State University, Ariz., "Nonlinear Dynamics and Signal Processing Computation." 

Mounir Laroussi, Old Dominion University, Va., "Instrumentation for Pulsed Non-Equilibrium Cold Plasma Research." 

Anupam Madhukar, University of Southern California, Calif., "Imaging and Control of Photodetectors." 

Jerome V. Moloney, University of Arizona, Ariz., "Ultrashort Pulse Propagation Experiments in Plasmonics." 

Hadis Morkoc, Virginia Commonwealth University, Va., "Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching System." 

Yu (Jade) Tong Morton, Miami University, Ohio, "Multi-Channel Radio Frequency System for Global Positioning System Research." 

Kenneth H. Nealson, University of Southern California, Calif., "Deep UV Laser Induced Native Fluorescence Biological Microscope." 

Zoubeida Ounaies, Texas A&M University, Texas Engineering Experiment Station, Texas, "Combined Mechano-Chemical Characterization for Nanocomposites." 

Stephen Pope, Cornell University, N.Y., Terascale Cluster for Turbulent Combustion Simulation." 

James L. Regens, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Okla., "Instrumentation for Analysis of Aerosol Deposition Dynamics." 

Donald O. Rockwell, Lehigh University, Pa., "Space-Time Imaging Systems." 

S. Shankar Sastry, University of California at Berkeley, Calif., "Heterogeneous Sensor Webs for Automated Target Recognition." 

Linda Schadler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, N.Y., "Nanotribology and Mechanics Experiments for Multifunctional Composites." 

Robert A. Schill, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Nev., "Secondary Electron Emission Test Stand for High Power Microwave Materials." 

Wayne L. Shebilske, Wright State University, Ohio, "Intelligent Displays and Trainers for Dynamic Targeting Cells." 

Roger Simpson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Va., "Laser-Doppler Velocimeter." 

Mitchell Smooke, Yale University, Conn., "Implicit Compact Methods for Chemically Reacting Flows." 

Michael Sulzer, Cornell University, N.Y., "Ionospheric and Plasma Physics in Near-Earth Space Environment." 

Brook Swanson, Gonzaga University, Wash., "Nano-force Testing Machine for Characterizing Biological Materials." 

P. Craig Taylor, Colorado School of Mines, Colo., "Fourier Transform Infrared Ellipsometer for Electronic Materials Research."