Marren Calls Basic Research, Collaboration, Imagination Critical to Advancing Technology

  • Published
  • By William Sharp
  • AFOSR Public Affairs
ARLINGTON, Va --  It would have been understandable had Dan Marren appeared rattled as he addressed hundreds of world-renowned scientists gathered in Atlanta recently to attend the Air Force Office of Scientific Research's Joint Program Review.

Marren, after all, had about 45 minutes to prepare a 30-minute speech shortly after he received word his boss, who was supposed to be a featured speaker, had a flat tire and could not make it. At the JPR, Marren expected to be in the audience. Instead, he spoke to scientists brought together by AFOSR program managers to simultaneously review five major Air Force basic research portfolios.

Speaking to experts who spent the week discussing, in great detail, such topics as physical mathematics, plasma aerodynamics, boundary layer physics, and control for space systems could affect anyone's composure - anyone except the director of the Arnold Engineering Development Center's White Oak, Md., facility. His presentation focused on three topics which, he said, are of critical importance to the scientific community - basic research, collaboration and relationships, and use of imagination to achieve great possibilities. The thread that weaves these concepts together is vision.

"General (Hap) Arnold, for whom the AEDC is named, envisioned a United States that would never be surprised again and an Air Force that would always be technologically superior in air and space than any other force out there," Marren said. "You (basic researchers) are critically important toward that end and I have the utmost respect for the work you do. And not just for the end product or system you help achieve, but for the research that helps us build and sustain high-quality test facilities.

"At AEDC," he said, "we have 58 unique test cells to examine topics such as propulsion, aerodynamics, and space." The problem, he said, is that "it can take 9 to 15 years to conceptualize, build, develop, calibrate, and put in place a test facility capable of doing the sort of testing that is desired.

"With that in mind," Marren said, "it is critical we reach back to the basic research community with a number of goals. One goal is to look closely at the concepts you're working on, the physics you're trying to understand, and the types of developments and breakthroughs you're making. This work enables the systems of tomorrow. If we look at those systems, we can get a feel for what kinds of tests and evaluations we're going to have to do to make those systems a reality." Collaboration and relationships are also important in technological advancement.

"At AEDC, we have about 2.500 employees - engineers, technicians, and others. We also have some tremendous facilities designed to fully test systems before we use them in the field. Additionally, AEDC facilities exist outside of Tennessee. One was transferred from the Navy at White Oak, Md. There, we do hypervelocity testing at relevant scale. Another is one we now manage - the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex located on NASA property in Moffet Field, Calif., where we test at much lower speeds. These are just two examples of how we are trying to think globally instead of only as a single service or agency.

"Additionally, General (David L.) Stringer (commander, AEDC, Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee) has been tireless in traveling around the country and world to build relationships," Marren said. "He and I share a belief that in today's era, no one is going to do it alone.

"On a recent trip to D.C., for example, General Stringer had two purposes. One purpose was to support the signing of a memorandum of agreement with the secretary of the Air Force and the NASA administrator to fully cooperate in aeronautics - take advantage of each other's capabilities and really work together to reach common goals," he said. This is especially important, he explained, as budgets become tighter. Now more than ever, people, tools, and resources need to be shared in order to advance common goals, he said. "We made a trip to the CIA and built relationships there and the trip was very interesting and informative," Marren said. "While we were there, we (the two organizations represented) looked at one another very similarly - in what ways can we share assets and expertise to cut costs while increasing capability?" Imagination, he said, plays a key role in this equation.

"We have to be careful not to waste valuable resources through duplication of efforts," he said. "I think some of what we've attempted to do is bring a lot of minds together doing different things so that the end product transcends what each person might have been able to do alone."

Research, he explained, can stall or halt if researchers allow themselves to be limited by available resources.

"We should not say 'I'm doing my research this way because these are the tools I have to do it. Rather, we should figure out what needs to be done and let that define what our capabilities are," he said. This sort of thinking can help everyone in two key areas - prioritization of resources and enabling scientists to think in terms of limitless boundaries, he said.

"Advancing your research will be, I'm sure, personally rewarding to you while, at the same time, gives us a better Air Force that's a lot more capable. And attendance at conferences such as the Joint Program Review is one of the most valuable things you can do as a scientist because here, among colleagues and peers, you use discussion, collaboration, and imagination to advance basic research to new heights of possibilities."