The Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program is one of the largest sponsors of research in biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and Earth science. To date, BES has supported more than 6,100 Ph.D. scientists and over 2,100 students, according to the “By the Numbers” report for 2019.
Recently, the University of New Mexico (UNM) announced that a project led by Sandra Biedron, an award-winning electrical and computer engineering research professor at UNM, was one of 31 projects funded by the energy department’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) state-national laboratory partnerships program in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
According to UNM, the project led by Professor Biedron seeks to answer a range of questions surrounding materials for quantum and energy applications. The three-year project began Sept. 1 and is the only EPSCoR project in New Mexico. BES research spans more than 150 academic, nonprofit, and industrial institutions as well as 15 Department of Energy national laboratories.
Among the Department of Energy laboratories collaborating with UNM are New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, New York’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Illinois’ Argonne National Laboratory.
“The ongoing contributions to science and engineering are absolutely immeasurable, particularly in physics, biology, or materials science, including semiconductor devices,” Biedron said in a statement. “Complementary to the above devices, the Brookhaven ATF MUED system, which was the first of its kind in the world, has already — although still relatively in its adolescent stage — revealed its impactful utility in several fascinating materials science applications, both at Brookhaven and in the systems that followed its lead, such as what my colleague Xijie Wang built at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and now others around the globe are also building, such as in Korea.”
In addition to Biedron as principal investigator, Manel Martinez Ramon serves as a co-principal investigator. He is also the King Felipe VI Endowed Chair and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. UMN says Biedron and Martinez-Ramon have recently hired a postdoctoral researcher, Mariana Fazio, as well as two graduate students, Destry Monk and David Kirby.
The research is centered around a mega-electron volt (MeV) ultrafast electron diffraction (MUED) instrument at the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
BES manages 46 energy frontier research centers and two energy innovation hubs. BES has a research budget of $784 million and applicants have more than a 20 percent success rate to receive a new grant. Currently, there are nearly 1,400 core research projects with more than 16,000 users at 12 BES facilities.
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