SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
AIR FORCE FUNDS HIGH-FLYING RESEARCH
ment. At the time, says Zewail, he needed instrumentation that would cost nearly $1 million. "They were so visionary that they shifted budget money within the grant in order for me to build the important apparatus I needed. "Air Force support is unique," Zewail continues, "because the program manager is always interacting with you to find out your needs." He says there are in-person PHYSICAL SCIENTISTS supported by the Air Force meetings—his current program manager, Office of Scientific Research sing its praises Berman, came to visit him recently at WILLIAM G. SCHULZ, C&EN WASHINGTON Galtech—where researchers can talk about their needs and the future of their research. Another Nobel Laureate—Alan J. THE MILITARY HAS long funded basic years, and he feels extremely grateful for its Heeger, a professor of physics at the Uniresearch in the physical sciences. One of support. versity of California, Santa Barbara—says the biggest—though perhaps not the most Zewail tells the story of his first meeting the Air Force '"was willing to take some well-known—supporters of basic research with two program officers from AFOSR in risks and respond quickly" to a research within the military is the Air Force Office of 1985. He was at a conference in Rochester, proposal he made some 20 years ago. Scientific Research (AFOSR), which manN.Y., giving a talk on his work. Afterward, But "it's been more than just the supages the entire basic research investment the two program officers asked to have port," says Heeger, who shared the 2000 for the Air Force. Nobel Prize in Chemistry if We pursue things and for work on electrically see where they lead," says conducting polymers. He AFOSR Director Brendan B. says his program manager, Godfrey. It's both a proud Charles Y-C. Lee, holds tradition and an admittedly individual meetings and risky approach that doesn't review meetings with other always pan out, he says. members of the program Among the many lines of inwhere participants can hear quiry that have been fruitful, about each other's work and he notes, are research projexplore potential collaboraects on self-healing materials tions. AFOSR is currently and on the effects of directed funding Heeger's work to energy on organisms, which create solar cells from semicould have military significonducting polymers. cance and also open a new Heeger says he has never path to cancer treatment. had any qualms about acceptS L I D I N G D I A M O N D S Harrison's work in tribology includes the ing military funding. Many "One of the important study of chemical reactions at the sliding interface between two dia other AFOSR-funded rethings we do here is find mond-like carbon coatings. The upper coating is hydrogen-terminatsearchers feel the same way, opportunities in the sciened near the interface (small red spheres) and is high in sp 3 -carbon and they praise AFOSR for its tific community—areas of content. The lower coating contains 2 0 % hydrogen and has a larger support and encouragement exciting science that overlap amount of sp 2 -carbon. Larger spheres represent carbon atoms. of basic research that is pubwith Air Force needs," says lished in the open literature. Michael R. Berman, one of What researchers do worry about is about 35 AFOSR program managers. "We lunch with him, and they talked some more whether AFOSR and its counterparts in go to meetings, and we listen and talk to about Zewail's investigations. Eventually, other branches of the military will continue people in the community." he submitted a formal grant proposal to research funding at high levels. Military AFOSR, and it was funded, allowing him to "My goal is not to have my program manbudgets have tightened considerably in begin his revolutionary work in femtosecagers sitting in Arlington," adds Godfrey, rerecent years, especially with the war in Iraq. ond (10"15) chemistry. ferring to AFOSR's headquarters in Virginia. Godfrey concedes that AFOSR has taken "If it wasn't for the timely support of in"These kinds of things don't happen a funding hit. "There has been a decline in often," says Zewail of his meeting with the strumentation from AFOSR, we would not both budget and number of personnel over have made the transition from the picosectwo program officers. "They came back and the past decade," he says, "but the budget ond to the femtosecond world," says 1999 said they wanted to fund my research." The decline is now arrested." Nobel Laureate Ahmed H. Zewail, a profesonly problem was the cost of the equipsor of chemistry and physics at California Learn more about the Air Force's research funding program on Institute of Technology. He says AFOSR MORE ONLINE C&EN Online, www.cen-online.org. has been funding his work for more than 20 WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
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AFOSR still supports a breathtaking array of research projects. In chemistry alone, the breadth of support is impressive. "One of the most satisfying things" about being an AFOSR program officer, Berman says, "is when you see new science being done that wouldn't have happened without your involvement." "I have been funded continuously by the Air Force for 25 years," says Mark S. Gordon, a professor of chemistry at Iowa State University. "The overriding theme of our research has been the use of quantum chemistry to assist in the design of novel materials that might be used as coat ings, high-energy fuels, and Godfrey heterogeneous catalysts, to name a few examples. To accomplish these goals, we collaborate extensively with experimental chemists and physicists in many different universities and at several Air Force research laboratories. Examples
of current projects are the design of new ionic liquids, the study of gold clusters on metal oxide supports as catalysts for in dustrially important processes, the study of carbon-titanium clusters, and the study of processes that occur on ο semiconductor surfaces. < "I have worked with several AFOSR program officers over the years," Gordon continues. "They are not just bean counters, but excellent scientists in their own right." Rice University chem istry professor James M. Tour says, "It's a lot of fun getting Air Force support" because of the flexibility in funding. In his work, he found that carbon nanotubes are very good at ab sorbing microwave radiation. Thanks to Air Force funding, Tour says, "we had the free dom to explore that. It was of such interest to them that after I made a presentation to Lee, he teamed me up with other people.
They encourage new research teams to form. Some program managers care more about getting money out the door. He cares about the science." At the University of Florida, chemis try professor John R. Reynolds has been receiving AFOSR funding since 1992. His polymer science group is interested in developing conjugated polymers for a vari ety of applications. He says he is using Air Force funding, for example, for the synthe sis of new polymers for electrochromic and other electronic devices. He says the work is relevant to the Air Force's interest in such things as cockpits that change color in response to ambient light or display colors for cockpit instrumentation. * With the Air Force, it's understood that it has to be mission-related research," Reyn olds says. But "we have also been able to go off into other areas." Rodney J. Bartlett, a professor in the Quantum Theory Project at the University of Florida, studies quantum chemistry with funding from AFOSR. He describes his work as seeking "a better way of solving quantum mechanics equations." For the
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Air Force, he says, one interest is in higher energy rocket fuels. In a February 2000 article in Chemistry 8i Industry, Bartlett writes of his research: "Simple valence bond considerations sug gest many electronically logical structures for novel but experimentally unknown polynitrogen molecules. Can the existence of these molecules be predicted? As most of them are speculative, quantum chemi cal calculations have played a major role in identifying likely candidate molecules and determining what conditions are needed to trap, observe, and use them. Furthermore, quantum chemistry can predict their spec troscopic fingerprints, allowing them to be identified. "The question is of more than academic interest," he continues. AFOSR research ers "have explored unusual polynitrogen molecules with the aim of finding new rocket fuels that can improve on the cur rently used combinations of hydrogen and liquid oxygen." "Military funding of basic research is really important," says Michael D. Fayer, a professor of chemistry at Stanford Univer
sity. 'Without funding from places like AFOSR, basic science in the U.S. would be in serious trouble." Fayer has been a world leader in the development and application of ultrafast nonlinear laser techniques and associated theory to the study of molecular con densed-matter systems. Part of his research pro gram looks at basic molecu lar properties and systems that might be of interest to Halas the Air Force. Ultimately, he says, the Air Force is interested in such things as the effects of the atmosphere and space environment on a variety of materi als—for example, those found on the space shuttle or in rocket engines. "AFOSR does a wonderful job of foster ing connections," says Stephen R. Leone, a professor of chemistry and physics at the University of California, Berkeley. In his 20 years of being funded by AFOSR, the agency has been instrumental in helping
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(microelectromechanical system) devices but also for larger items such as engine parts and tools. Materials of particular interest for solid lubricant coatings, she says, are diamondlike carbon films and nanocrystalline diamond, though really '"we're interested in the whole spectrum of carbon-hydrogen-containing coatings." Harrison says she feels very fortunate to have her research program funded both as an individual researcher and as part of
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"WORKING WITH AFOSR people has been one of the best university/federal agency relationships I can imagine," says Uzi Land man, a physics professor at Georgia Insti tute of Technology. In more than 19 years of AFOSR funding, he has conducted research in such areas as nanotribology and nanocatalysis. Most recently, his lab has been investigating nanojets, fluid jets as small as 10 nm. These jets could be used for such diverse purposes as creating patterns on surfaces or positioning satellites in space. At the U.S. Naval Academy, chemistry professor Judith A. Harrison uses AFOSR funding for work in molecular dynamics simulations to study friction, wear, and solid lubricant coatings. Such coatings, she says, are of particular interest for MEMS WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
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tional ExtremeEnSSSKSSSSSl vrronment Surfacd o m a i n in t o n e ' s es: Nanotribology UC Berkeley lab. For Air and Space." • H M K What makes Har rison's research unique is that "we can use computers to model chemical reactions that take place when objects are in sliding contact. These kinds of simulations give us important insights into the friction and wear processes. Ultimately, we want to understand the atomic-scale mechanisms governing these processes," she says. "We want to see which bonds are breaking and which ones are being formed." By under standing wear properties, she says, they might be able to predict how long parts of an engine or device might last so that they can be replaced before they wear out. AFOSR is willing "to support the uncon ventional if it's defensible," Godfrey says. "We're patient and focused on developing long-term relationships with researchers. Like the National Science Foundation, we make heavy use of peer review, but oc casionally we ignore that advice. We don't want to block out good ideas that are not mainstream." •
