In FY 97 and prior years, within the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), only the Aerospace Materials Sciences Particulate and Fluid Mechanics program was funding efforts in nanosciences technology, with a total effort of approximately $750,000 per year. The emphasis was on material properties, numerical modeling/simulation, and constitutive relationships.

In FY 98, the Director, Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) announced a DOD-wide MURI effort in nanosciences. Within AFOSR three directorates will be involved in nanoscience technology: Aerospace Materials and Science, Mathematics, and Physics. Each directorate has submitted proposals to DDR&E for the FY 98 MURI program topic Nanoscience. Under the Nanoscience topic are five subtopics; AFOSR is the lead for two of these. Each sub-area will be funded at approximately $1 million/yr.

FY 98 MURI Nanoscience Topics:

1. Engineering of Nanostructures and Devices

2. Computational Tools for Design, Analysis and Optimization of Nanometer Scale Devices and Operation. AFOSR POCs: Maj. Scott Schreck (202) 767-7902, Capt. Brian Sanders (202) 767-6963.

3. Nanoscience: Size Distribution Control of Self-Assembled Semiconductor Nanostructures for Multispectral Detector Arrays. AFOSR POC: Maj. Michael Prairie (202) 767-4931.

4. Nanoelectronics: Low Power, High Performance Components and Circuits

5. Carbon Clusters and Nanotubes

Complete information on the MURI programs can be found on the websites of AFOSR (http://www.afosr.af.mil), ARO, and ONR.

Based on the increasing effort in the MURI program, the Particulate and Fluids Mechanics program will decrease slightly to an annual effort of approximately $600,000 per year, with an emphasis on constitutive relationships under quasi-static conditions. The majority of the work will be related to clay soils, rock, and concrete experiencing very high strain rate loadings by earth penetrators or blast loads. AFOSR is a Technical Affiliate of the University of Florida Engineering Research Center.