NH Scientists Awarded DOE Grant for Fusion and Space Science Research
By Matthew Gianino, Institute on Disability / UCED
April 4, 2007
A team of scientists at UNH and Dartmouth College has been awarded a $1.7
million grant from the federal Department of Energy (DOE) to establish
a new center that will develop theoretical and computer simulation models
for applications to controlled thermonuclear fusion and to the problems
of turbulence and heating in the Sun’s environment.
Amitava Bhattacharjee, Paul Professor of Space Science at the UNH Institute
for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS), will serve as director
of the Cluster for Integrated Computation and Analysis of Reconnection
and Turbulence or CICART.
The proposal for CICART, led by Bhattacharjee, was ranked top in the nation
in the competitive award process at the DOE Experimental Program to Stimulate
Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This program supports basic research in
a broad range of science and technology disciplines within DOE.
EPSCoR enhances funding opportunities in states that historically have
had lower federal funding levels. Since New Hampshire became an EPSCoR
state in 2004 more than $4.1 million has been awarded to support scientific
research.
“The main premise of CICART is that some fundamental aspects of
physics in fusion devices, smaller-scale laboratory experiments, and astrophysical
plasmas can be viewed from a common perspective, and progress in any one
of these interconnected fields is likely to lead to progress in others,” says
Bhattacharjee.
The principal participants of CICART constitute an interdisciplinary group,
drawn from the communities of applied mathematics, astrophysics, computational
physics, fluid dynamics, and plasma physics. The group includes faculty
members, research scientists, and graduate students.
CICART will foster collaborations between scientists at UNH, Dartmouth
College, and two DOE laboratories. “I am delighted by the collaboration
between UNH and Dartmouth. This project will build on expertise at both
universities and will position New Hampshire well for future opportunities,” says
Martin Wybourne, vice provost for research at Dartmouth.
The EPSCoR program in New Hampshire is served by a statewide committee
chaired by John Aber, vice president for research at UNH, and is composed
of academic and industry leaders, legislators, and state officials. “Our
goal in the NH EPSCoR program is to leverage these federal grants as a
foundation for technology-based economic development,” Aber says.
For more information on the NH EPSCoR Program: http://unh.edu/news/pdf/NH_EPSCoR_one-pager_2007.pdf.
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