AFOSR grants go to 42 scientists/engineers through its Young Investigator Research Program

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research today announced that it will award approximately $15.5 million in grants to 42 scientists and engineers from 32 research institutions who submitted winning research proposals through the Air Force's Young Investigator Research Program (YIP).

The YIP is open to scientists and engineers at research institutions across the United States who received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees in the last five years and who 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.

This year AFOSR received 234 proposals in response to the AFOSR broad agency announcement solicitation in major areas of interest to the Air Force. These areas include: Dynamical Systems and Control, Quantum and Non-Equilibrium Processes, Information, Decision and Complex Networks, Complex Materials and Devices, and Energy, Power and Propulsion. AFOSR officials select proposals based on the evaluation criteria listed in the broad agency announcement. Those selected will receive the grants over a 3 year period.

The recipients and their anticipated research areas are:

Regime
Dr. Amir Ahmadi, Princeton University, Scalable Algorithms with Formal Guarantees for Lyapunov Analysis of Control Systems via Algebraic Optimization
Dr. William Anderson, Baylor University, Turbulent Boundary Layer Flows Over Sharp Aerodynamic Drag Transitions
Dr. Panagiotis Artemiadis, Arizona State University, Perception and action interfaces in the symbiosis of humans and multi-agent systems
Dr. Francisco Becerra Chavez, University of New Mexico, High-capacity atom-photon interfaces for quantum information
Dr. Kurtis Cantley, Boise State University, Spike Timing-Dependent Learning Circuits for Temporal Pattern Recognition and Classification
Dr. Gunnar Carlsson, University of Minnesota, Allocating Geographic Resources Optimally
Dr. Michele Cash, University of Colorado, Ensemble Modeling and Data Assimilation within the Enlil Solar Wind Model
Dr. Mark Davenport, Georgia Institute of Technology, Solving inference and inverse problems using soft data
Dr. Adam de la Zerda, Leland Stanford Junior University, Molecular imaging of human performance biomarkers at cellular resolution in vivo
Dr. Lian Duan, Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly University of Missouri, Rolla), Numerical Simulation of Freestream Acoustic Disturbances
Dr. Danna Freedman, Northwestern University, Molecular models to investigate diamagnetic anisotropy: Towards the directed synthesis of rare-earth free permanent magnets
Dr. Mirko Gamba, University of Michigan, Particle-Free Spatially-Resolved Two-Component Velocimetry for Fluid Flows
Dr. Noel Giebink, Pennsylvania State University, Complex index and nonlinearity modulation in organic photonic composites
Dr. Alon Gorodetsky, University of California, Irvine, Protein-Based Proton-Conducting Materials
Dr. Melissa Green, Syracuse University, Langrangian Coherent Structures in Bluff Body Flows
Dr. Leanne Hirshfield, Syracuse University, Understanding the Effects of Cyber Attacks on Human Operators
Dr. Allon Hochbaum, University of California, Irvine, Self-Assembled Biomimetic Conductive Fibers as a Novel Functional Materials Platform
Dr. Jeremiah Johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Synthesis and Self-Assembly of Tri- and Tetra-block Bottlebrush Copolymers
Dr. Addis Kidane, University of South Carolina, Multi-Scale Response of Engineered and Energetic Mat during Aggressive Condition
Dr. Michael Kudenov, North Carolina State University, Passive Snapshot Remote Sensing of Object Velocity
Dr. James LeBeau, North Carolina State University, A transformational approach to quantify chemistry at the Atomic Scale
Dr. Kristina Lemmer, Western Michigan University, The Study of Complex Molecular Plasma
Dr. Zhiqiang Lin, University of Texas at Dallas, Towards Fundamental and Binary-Centric Techniques for Kernal Malware Defense
Dr. Christopher McGuffey, University of California, San Diego, Dynamics of High-Intensity Laser-Driven Proton Beam
Dr. Ningfang Mi, Northeastern University, Creating An Integrated Management Layer To Administer Heterogeneous Resources in Dynamic Workflow Clusters
Dr. Ethan Miller, Johns Hopkins University, Conjugate Depletion Experiment
Dr. Majid Minary-Jolandan, University of Texas at Dallas, Lessons from Bone to Bioinspired Tough and Self-Remodeling Aerospace Materials
Dr. Chetan Patil, Vanderbilt University, Development of stimulated Raman spectroscopy for ultrahigh resolution imaging of neuronal stimuli
Dr. David Robertson, University of Texas at El Paso, Synthesis of 3D-printable Polymer Matrix Composites
Dr. Michael Sangid, Purdue University, Identifying The Crack Driving Force Mechanism Through Bayesian Analysis
Dr. Monika Schleier-Smith, Leland Stanford Junior University, Control and visualization of collective spin states for quantum metrology
Dr. Toru Shiozaki, Northwestern University, Electronic Structure Theory for Photo-Induced Spin-Forbidden Dynamics
Dr. Aarti Singh, Carnegie Mellon University, Compressive and Adaptive Measurement Design for Inference Problems in Multi-Attribute Large-Scale Graphs
Dr. Volker Sorger, George Washington University, Breaking Photonic Limits: light-matter-interaction enhanced devices for atto-joule & THz Datalinks
Dr. Naveen Verma, Princeton University, From Sensor Data to High-value Information: ultra-low-energy platforms for deriving inferences from complex
Dr. Kaitlyn Voccola, Colorado State University, Mathematical and Statistical Techniques for Synthetic-Aperture Radar
Dr. Joshua Vura-Weis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Tabletop Femtosecond XUV Transient Absorption Spectroscopy
Dr. Chao Wang, Johns Hopkins University, Tailoring Magnetic Nanomaterials for Electromagnetic Wave Absorption
Dr. Qiqi Wang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gradient based optimization and control of chaotic multidisciplinary systems via Least Squares Shadowing adjoint method
Dr. David Wentzlaff, Princeton University, Megacore Operating System and Chip Architecture Co-Design
Dr. Mona Zebarjadi, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Meta-conductors with invisible dopants

Provided by Air Force Office of Scientific Research