Andy Ellington Wins National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship

Andy Ellington  has been awarded a highly prestigious National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship, one of only 11 in the country. The NSSEFF is the Department of Defense’s equivalent of the NIH Pioneer award and comes with a five year grant of more than $500K per year.

NSSEFF provides grants to top-tier researchers from U.S.  universities to conduct unclassified, basic research that may transform the DOD's capabilities in the long term. "These distinguished researchers have a demonstrated recordof success in fields of strategic importance to the DoD.  Their   NSSEFF work will not only contribute to preparing DoD and the nation for an  uncertain future, but will also develop the necessary high quality science, technology, engineering and mathematics talent that will be essential to the department's continued success," said Zachary J. Lemnios, director, Defense Research and Engineering.

The fellows conduct basic research in core science and engineering disciplines that are expected to underpin future DoD  technology  development. For this competition, the research proposals are in the  areas  of high temperature superconductors; resilient networks; synthetic biology;  computational electromagnetics; quantum information science; waves  in random  media; image acquisition, analysis and integration; attosecond electron  processes in solids; theoretical and computational design of light and force-driven molecular materials; and emergency of shape and patterns in  biomolecular assemblies in ionic solutions.

Lemnios noted that "the NSSEFF Program ensures these  research leaders and their students are actively engaged with DoD, in    addition to conducting this unclassified research".  Students of NSSEFF Fellows will also be afforded opportunities to present to DoD   audiences and  to further develop and broaden their research experiences through    internships at DoD laboratories.

In response to the NSSEFF Broad Agency Announcement issued
by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 800 nomination letters from
academic institutions resulted in the technical review of 670 white papers.
Twenty-one semifinalists were selected from the authors of these white papers, and invited to submit full proposals outlining their  research plans.
Upon successful completion of negotiations between their home academicinstitutions and DoD, grant awards will be made to the faculty
members' universities for support of their research.

For more information about this program, go to
http://www.ndep.us/ProgNSSEFF.aspx