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2018 Young Investigator Award Recipients


  • Dr. Amy Clarke, Colorado School of Mines
    In-situ Studies of Strain Rate Effects on Phase Transformations and Microstructural Evolution in Beta-Titanium and Multi-Principal Element Alloys
    Program Officer: Dr. David Shifler, Propulsion Materials
  • Dr. Stuart Craig, University of Arizona
    Secondary Instability of Hypersonic Crossflow Vortices
    Program Officer: Dr. Eric Marineau, Aerodynamics and Hypersonics
  • Dr. Stefano Ermon, Stanford University
    Learning with Domain Knowledge: An Implicit Probabilistic Models Approach
    Program Officer: Dr. Behzad Kamgar-Parsi, Machine Learning, Reasoning and Intelligence
  • Dr. Hanwei Gao, Florida State University
    Two-Dimensional Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskites as Photoactive Semiconductors
    Program Officer: Dr. Brian Bennett, Electromagnetic Materials
  • Dr. Lisa Giocomo, Stanford University
    Principals of Cue Integration for Accurate Position Estimates across Contexts
    Program Officer: Dr. Thomas McKenna, Bio-Inspired Autonomous Systems
  • Dr. Abhinav Gupta, Carnegie Mellon University
    Knowledge Graphs for Planning Perception
    Program Officer: Dr. Behzad Kamgar-Parsi, Machine Learning, Reasoning and Intelligence
  • Dr. Michael Haberman, University of Texas at Austin
    Acoustic Wave Redirection and Sensing using Bianisotropic Acoustic Metamaterial
    Program Officer: Ms. Deborah Nalchajian, Ship Systems and Engineering Research
  • Dr. Douglas Hunsaker, Utah State University
    Control of Tailless Morphing Aircraft
    Program Officer: Dr. Brian Holm-Hansen, Aviation Technology
  • Dr. Omer Inan, Georgia Institute of Technology
    Wearable Assessment of Warfighter Blood Volume Status using Graph Mining Algorithms
    Program Officer: Dr. Timothy Bentley, Basic Biomedical: Blast and Traumatic Brain Injury
  • Dr. Chanh Kieu, Indiana University
    Quantifying the Practical Predictability of Tropical Cyclone Intensity Forecasts
    Program Officer: Dr. Ronald Ferek, Marine Meteorology and Space
  • Dr. Heather Kulik, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Adaptive-Resolution Chemical Discovery Strategies for Precise and Fast Computer-Aided Transition Metal Complex Design
    Program Officer: Dr. Kenny Lipkowitz, Computer-Aided Materials Design
  • Dr. Andy Lemmon, University of Alabama
    Semi-Taps: Suppression of Electro-Magnetic-Interference through Advanced Packaging of Semiconductors
    Program Officer: Mr. Lynn Petersen, Ship Systems and Engineering Research
  • Dr. Hao Li, University of Southern California
    Complete Human Digitization and Unconstrained Performance Capture
    Program Officer: Dr. Peter Squire, Human Performance Training and Education
  • Dr. Kin Fai Mak, Cornell University
    Superconductivity in Two-Dimensional Atomic Crystals
    Program Officer: Chagaan Baatar, Nanoscale Computing Devices and Systems
  • Dr. Benedetto Marelli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Epitaxial Growth of Structural Proteins into Hierarchical Mesostructured Materials
    Program Officer: Dr. Laura Kienker, Biomaterials and Bionanotechnology
  • Dr. Rahul Mazumder, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Combinatorial Statistical Inference with Mathematical Optimization
    Program Officer: Dr. Predrag Neskovic, Mathematical Data Science
  • Dr. Ryan McBride, University of Michigan
    High-Power Microwave Generation by Compact Linear Transformer Driver Technology
    Program Officer: Mr. Ryan Hoffman, Directed Energy & High Power Microwave
  • Dr. Prateek Mittal, Princeton University
    Synergistic Integration of Statistical and Logic-Based Reasoning for Adversarial Learning Mechanisms
    Program Officer: Dr. Sukarno Mertoguno, Cyber Security and Complex Software Systems
  • Dr. Ankur Moitra, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    An Algorithmic Theory of Robustness
    Program Officer: Dr. Predrag Neskovic, Mathematical Data Science
  • Dr. Necmiye Ozay, University of Michigan
    Correct-by-Construction Control with Non-Asymptotic Learning, Estimation and Detection in-the-Loop
    Program Officer: Dr. Marc Steinberg, Science of Autonomy
  • Dr. Mikael Rechtsman, Pennsylvania State University
    Topological Protection in Time-Reversal Invariant Photonic Devices
    Program Officer: Dr. Antti Makinen, Nanomaterials
  • Dr. Chad Risko, University of Kentucky
    Decoding Nucleation and Growth in Organic Semiconductor Films
    Program Officer: Dr. Paul Armistead, Polymeric Organic Materials
  • Dr. Andre Schleife, University of Illinois
    Developing a First-Principles Model of Hot-Electron-Mediated Diffusion
    Program Officer: Dr. Kenny Lipkowitz, Computer-Aided Materials Design
    Program Officer: Dr. Antti Makinen, Nanomaterials
  • Dr. Nina Stark, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
    Geotechnical Soil Characterization from Remote Sensing for the Assessment of Coastline Strength, Stability and Trafficability
    Program Officer: Dr. Reginald Beach, Littoral Geosciences and Optics
  • Dr. Cemal Tasan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Tracking Hydrogen: A Multi-Scale Experimental-Computational Study of Hydrogen Influence on Dislocations, Plasticity, Damage
    Program Officer: Dr. William Mullins, Structural Materials
  • Dr. Zhiting Tian, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
    Enhancing Thermal Transport at Solid-Solid Interfaces
    Program Officer: Dr. Mark Spector, Ship Systems and Engineering Research
  • Dr. Mehran Tehrani, University of New Mexico
    Next Generation Electrical Wires for Navy Applications
    Program Officer: Dr. Scott Coombe, Ship Systems and Engineering Research
  • Dr. Michael Tolley, University of California San Diego
    Crab-Inspired Amphibious Legged Robots with Variable Stiffness Shells for Morphological Adaptation
    Program Officer: Dr. Thomas McKenna, Bio-Inspired Autonomous Systems
  • Dr. Gregory Valiant, Stanford University
    Getting More from Less: Optimal Estimation and Learning, for Sparse, High Dimensional, or Untrusted Data
    Program Officer: Dr. Predrag Neskovic, Mathematical Data Science
  • Dr. Ram Vasudevan, University of Michigan
    Real-Time Certified, Safe Control Synthesis for Autonomous Systems
    Program Officer: Dr. Thomas Fu, Ship Systems and Engineering Research
  • Dr. Caglar Yardim, Ohio State University
    Multiple Grazing Angle Electromagnetic Propagation and Scattering in Non-Standard Atmosphere
    Program Officer: Dr. Daniel Eleuterio, Marine Meteorology and Space
  • Dr. Cunjiang Yu, University of Houston
    Cephalopod Inspired Camouflage Skins: Adaptive Color Changing, Pattern Tuning, and Texture Morphing
    Program Officer: Dr. Michael Qin, Hybrid Complex Warfare – Robotics and Autonomy