Air Force Launches Young Investigators Research Program With $6.3 Million Investment

  • Published
  • By William Sharp
  • AFOSR Public Affairs
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research here today announced it will award approximately $6.3 million in grants to 21 scientists and engineers who submitted winning research proposals through the Air Force's new 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 3-year period. Competition for YIP grants is intense. A total of 145 proposals were received in response to the AFOSR broad agency announcement solicitation in major areas of interests to the Air Force. Interest areas include aerospace and material sciences, chemistry and life sciences, mathematics and information sciences, and physics and electronics. AFOSR officials selected proposals based on the evaluation criteria listed in the broad agency announcement.

"AFOSR is proud to participate in the President's National Competitive Initiative by supporting the exciting research of these 21 outstanding scientists and engineers," said Dr. Brendan B. Godfrey, AFOSR director. He added, "The AFOSR Young Investigator Research Program will grow to at least 50 grants over the next 3 years."

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. Natalie A. Cartwright, University of Vermont State and Agricultural College, Burlington, Vt., will investigate ultrawideband electromagnetic pulse propagation through the ionosphere.
     
  • Dr. Mainak Chatterjee, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla., will focus on economic models for end-to-end decision making in an ad hoc network environment.
     

  • Dr. Kenneth T. Christensen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ill., will look at low-order models of highly-irregular surface roughness and their impact on wall turbulence. 


  • Dr. Andrew Christlieb, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., will examine grid free electromagnetic plasma simulations. 


  • Dr. Scott A. Craver, State University of New York, Binghamton, N.Y., will work on identification of secret algorithms using oracle attacks. 


  • Dr. Jason Heikenfeld, University of Cincinnati, Ohio, will explore fundamental understanding of materials and operational issues for electrowetting optics in extreme environment and high-accuracy Air Force applications. 


  • Dr. Christine Julien, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, will explore adaptive coordination for dynamic mobile systems. 


  • Dr. Giti A.Khodaparast, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, Va., will research probing and manipulation of coherent states in ferromagnetic narrow gap semiconductors with an eye towards developing concepts for new device functionalities. 


  • Dr. Pongpan Laksanalamai, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Baltimore, Md., will study influence of temperature on the dynamic structures of psychrophilic small heat shock proteins. 


  • Dr. Jian Luo, Clemson University, Clemson, S.C., will examine nanoscale quasi-liquid grain boundary films in refractory metals. 


  • Dr. Benjamin J. McCall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ill., will focus on ultrasensitive infrared spectroscopy of molecular ions of importance in atmospheric chemistry and propulsion. 


  • Dr. Jin Kim Montclare, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, N.Y., will examine engineered protein polymers. 


  • Dr. Matthew A. Oehlschlaeger, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., will focus on an experimental study of the oxidation, ignition, and soot formation characteristics of jet fuel. 


  • Dr. Anatoli Polkovnikov, Boston University, Boston, Mass., will research dynamics and thermodynamics of many-particle cold atom systems. 


  • Dr. Clarence W. Rowley, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., will study unsteady aerodynamic models for flight control of agile micro air vehicles. 


  • Dr. Christian Shelton, University of California at Riverside, Calif., will explore continuous time structured stochastic processes. 


  • Dr. Izabela Szlufarska, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wis, will study the tribology of nanostructured silicon carbide for MEMS and NEMS applications in extreme environments. 


  • Dr. Mitchell Walker, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta, Ga., will focus on annular helicon plasma sources for high thrust-to-power hall thrusters. 


  • Dr. Clark Taylor, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, will explore vision-assisted navigation of miniature unmanned aerial vehicles. 


  • Dr. Haiyan Wang, Texas Engineering Experiment Station, College Station, Texas, will study nanoengineered YBCO coated conductors for flux pinning enhancements. 


  • Dr. Hao Yan, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., will research self-assembled combinatorial nanoarrays for multiplex biosensing.