ECE Distinguished Professor Alexander Balandin has been awarded a 2021 Department of Defense (DoD) Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship. The five-year, highly competitive fellowship is the DoD’s most prestigious single-investigator award with up to $3 million in funding and “supports new, out-of-the-box ideas where research creativity intersects with the unknown.” Balandin was selected to conduct research in one-dimensional quantum materials. His project aims to create a new comprehensive research field of quantum materials consisting of individual atomic chains of van-der-Waals materials with one-dimensional motifs in crystal lattices, and composites comprised of a polymer matrix with such atomic chain fillers. The project’s focus is specifically on materials, which reveal strongly-correlated quantum phenomena and non-trivial topology. It is anticipated 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 RF communications, as well as in energy conversion devices. The project plan envisions cooperation with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As one of only eight Class of 2021 Fellows, Balandin will join a cadre of 57 current Fellows, who conduct basic research in areas of importance to DoD. In addition to their research projects, Fellows can engage with the DoD enterprise, defense laboratories, senior leaders, and the broader national security community. More information about the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship and the past winners can be found HERE.
