The Department of Defense (DoD) announced the selection of 10 distinguished faculty scientists and engineers for the 2019 Class of Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows, today. The highly competitive fellowship is the department's flagship single investigator award for basic research, and is named in honor of Dr. Vannevar Bush, the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development after World War II. This fellowship program aims to advance transformative, university-based fundamental research.
"The Department of Defense is the home of big ideas for unique problem sets," said Dr. Bindu Nair, deputy director for Basic Research in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. "The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship reflects the department's commitment to support paradigm-shifting research that explores the unknown, engages outstanding scientists and engineers on these challenges, and helps to define and transform our research agendas of the future."
The 2019 class will join a cadre of 55 current fellows, who conduct basic research in areas of importance to the DoD, ranging from materials science and cognitive neuroscience to quantum information sciences and applied mathematics. In addition to their research projects, fellows engage directly with the DoD enterprise to collaborate with DoD laboratories and share insights with DoD leadership and the broader national security community.
For the fiscal year 2019 competition, the Basic Research Office received over 250 white papers, from which panels of experts selected the final 10 fellows. Each fellow will receive up to $3 million over the 5-year fellowship term to pursue cutting-edge fundamental research projects. More information about the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship is available on the Basic Research Office website: https://basicresearch.defense.gov.
The 2019 Class of Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows can be found here.