DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

In 2008, Nebraska researchers received three awards from the Department of Defense (DEPSCoR) competition, two from the Army Research Office (ARO) and one from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). The Department of Defense made 33 awards totaling $15.7 million to 24 academic institutions in 18 states.  Twenty-three states were eligible to submit applications. The Nebraska projects selected are:

•  “Self-Encoded Spread Spectrum Modulation for Robust Anti-Jamming Communication” (Lim Nguyen, Computer & Electronics Engineering, UNL), AFOSR;

•  “Advanced Probes for Characterizations of Magnetic Nanostructures” (Sy-Hwang Liou, Physics & Astronomy, UNL), ARO;

•  “Bi-functional Pentacene Monolayer for Organic Field-effect Transistors” (Li Tan, Engineering Mechanics, UNL), ARO.

In 2007, the Department of Defense awarded $7 million to 13 academic institutions in nine states. Academic researchers in twenty three states/territories were eligible to receive awards under this competition.  Two Nebraska awards were received, one from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the other from the Army Research Office (ARO).  The Nebraska projects are:

•  "A Novel Variable Wide Bandgap Material for High Power, High Frequency Devices" (Rodney J. Soukup, Electrical Engineering, UNL), AFOSR;

•  "Genome Biology of Innate Immunity:  Genetic Dissection of Drosophila melanogaster Responses to Bacillus Infection" (Lawrence G. Harshman, School of Biological Sciences, UNL), ARO.

In 2006, Nebraska received two Department of Defense (DEPSCoR) awards, one for an Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) project and one for an Office of Naval Research (ONR) project, totaling over $1.1M.  Twenty-five projects were selected out of 103 submitted with $11.5M in awards made to 22 academic institutions in 17 states.  Nebraska’s projects are:

•   “Self-Configuration and Localization in Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Networks” (Lance Perez, Electrical Engineering, UNL), AFOSR;

•   “Nanostructure-Designed Dielectric Materials for High-Energy Density Capacitors” (Stephen Ducharme, Physics & Astronomy, UNL), ONR.

In 2005, the Department of Defense awarded $11.4 million (averaging approximately $422,000 per award) to 20 academic institutions for 27 projects in 16 states.  Twenty-two state proposal packages consisting of 108 projects, requesting over $56 million, were submitted.  Nebraska had one project selected:

 
•   "Laser-Assisted Fabrication of Large-Scale 3-D Photonic Bandgap Structures" (Yongfeng Lu, Electrical Engineering and Co-PI Xinwei Wang, Mechanical Engineering, UNL), AFOSR.

More information is available at Programs, www.aro.army.mil/research/index.htm, and www.defenselink.mil.