2021 Class of LUCI Fellows

The Basic Research Office at OUSD (R&E) is pleased to announce the 2021 class of Laboratory-University Collaboration (LUCI) Fellows. LUCI fellows are highly accomplished 6.1 researchers in the DoD laboratories that wish to partner with top tier DoD-funded academic researchers.

This program is very competitive. The review process involved Program Officers of the three services, DARPA, OSD personnel (including from the Technical and Assistant Directors for modernization priorities) and external technical experts drawn from several USG organizations). Out of 105 submissions, 22 applicants were selected for an interview phase, from which the following 10 Fellows have been selected:

PI	Project Title	Collaborator
Luke Johnson (NRL)	Statistical Formulation of Nonlinear Optics for Describing the Propagation of Partially Coherent, High Power Laser Beams	Thomas Antonsen (U. of MD)
Cyril Williams (ARL)	High Pressure Laser-Driven Shock Waves: Tabletop Generation and Characterization	Keith A Nelson (MIT)
Suya You (ARL)	Learning to Generate Synthetic Datasets for Machine Learning	Leonidas J. Guibas (Stanford)
Luke Baldwin and Christopher Crouse (AFRL)	Rethinking how we Synthesize Materials: Functionalization of Carbon Derived Nanomaterials using Continuous Flow Chemistry	Timothy Swager (MIT)
Patrick Taylor (ARL)	Distorted Bands in Topological Quantum Materials	Joseph Heremans (Ohio State U.)
Dashiell Vitullo (ARL)	Highly Nonlinear Optical Cavities for Quantum Networks	Dirk Englund (MIT)
Sang-Yeon Cho and Weimin Zhou (ARL)	Low-dimensional Meta-Optics with Unusual Physical Properties for Novel Device Concepts	Andrea Alu (CUNY)
Jorge Benavides and Svetlana Harbaugh (AFRL)	Development of Semi-Specific Transcription Factor Arrays for Bio-signature Sensing	Andrew Ellington (UTA)
Stanislav Tsoi (NRL)	Revealing Electron Correlations in Moiré Superlattices by van der Waals Force Microscopy	Phillip Kim (Harvard)
Janice Boercker (NRL)	Coupling Infrared Excitons and Plasmons in Hybrid Nanostructures	Cherie Kagan and Christopher Murray (UPenn), Chad Mirkin (Northwestern)

While many will be inevitably disappointed with this outcome, we wish to emphasize that all proposed research projects that reached the interview phase were of high quality, and the final selection was made with considerable care and thoughtful discussions. The number of awards is limited by the available budget, and many projects deserve a second look in the next call for the FY21 class. To that effect, we will endeavor to provide feedback to all interviewed, in addition to the ones already provided to white paper submitters.

In closing, we are gratified to see an S&T workforce that can excel in basic research, clearly formulate highly innovative research directions, and is able to access the most advanced scientific work by collaborating with US Academia via this LUCI program. To the winners of this FY21 selection, congratulations, and we are looking forward to hearing more, in future events, about the great progress you are making in advancing the scientific state-of-the-art and supporting the DoD mission.