$7.5 Million Department of Defense Grant to The Graduate Center's ASRC

Professor Andrea Alù, director of the Photonics Initiative at The Graduate Center‘s Advanced Science Research Center has been awarded one of 24 highly competitive grants from the United States Department of Defense’s (DoD) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. The five-year, $7.5 million award will support metamaterials research led by Alù, who will direct work conducted across four academic research institutions: ASRC; Columbia University; Stanford University; and University of Michigan.
 

Professor Andrea Alù

The MURI grant will fund a continuation of groundbreaking work by Alù and his to develop time-modulated metamaterials that can break reciprocity (a law of physics that forces the transmission of light to be identical in opposite directions) and help researchers realize a new generation of compact nanophotonic devices. These devices will provide exciting opportunities for new wireless communications, radar, optical-circuits and optical-computing technologies.
 
“I am honored to receive this DoD research award and very excited to have the opportunity to jump start a major research effort on time-modulated metamaterials with my colleagues at the ASRC and our collaborators at three other renowned academic institutions,” Alù said.
 
This is the first MURI grant ever awarded to the ASRC and The Graduate Center, according to Joshua Brumberg, dean of the sciences at The Graduate Center.

“We’re especially excited to be leading this impressive group of world-class researchers in conducting this cutting-edge research,” Brumberg said. “The MURI award is a direct result of the work that The Graduate Center has done over the past several years to aggregate its research resources and create an interdisciplinary consortium that engages and attracts top minds across various fields from around the world.”
 
Read the full news release here.