Friday, February 24, 2006

Department of Defense Awards Grants To Area Universities

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded major, basic research grants to 20 universities, worth $150.6 million over the next five years. The DoD said that the grants will cover 26 topic areas in basic science and engineering, part of the DoD's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. In the region, Arizona State University received two grants and the University of New Mexico received one grant. Arizona State's grants included a project headed by Aditi Chattopadhyay for health monitoring and materials damage prognosis for aerospace propulsion and structural systems and a project around silicon-based lasers and nanophotonics headed by Jose Menendez. The University of New Mexico's Plamen Atanassov received a grant for bioengineering of enzymatic fuel cells. The DoD said that each award averages about $1M per year for the research.