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Congratulations to NTC Awards Chair Alex Balandin, UC Riverside distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials science, who was selected for the DoD’s 2021 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows (VBFF) program.
On May 5th, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced the selection of eight distinguished faculty scientists and engineers for the 2021 Class of Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows (VBFF). The highly competitive fellowship is the DoD’s flagship single investigator award for basic research. VBFF is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, with grants managed by the Office of Naval Research.
The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship is named in honor of Dr. Vannevar Bush, the Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development after World War II. In line with Dr. Bush’s vision, the Fellowship aims to advance transformative, university-based fundamental research. For the FY21 competition, over 300 white papers were received, from which panels of experts recommended the final eight fellows. Each fellow will receive up to $3 million over the five-year fellowship term to pursue cutting-edge fundamental research projects.
Prof. Balandin’s topic is specifically on nanotechnology. The project is on creating a new research field: one-dimensional quantum materials. For their VBFF project, Balandin and co-workers will investigate formation of charge-density-wave condensate in one-dimensional Van der Waals materials. Other topics of interest include one-dimensional materials with strong spin-orbit coupling, phonon confinement, and quantization effects. Electronics experts expect that one-dimensional quantum materials can be used in a variety of electronic devices, with applications in low-power electronic circuits, quantum computers, small-size electromagnetic antennas for radiofrequency communications, and energy-conversion devices.
More information about the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship is available on the DoD Basic Research Office website.