UCF researchers have placed among the nation's top universities in two major awards competitions. Two researchers from UCF's Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center (AMPAC) have received the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (Career) awards from the National Science Foundation. And three researchers from the School of Optics/CREOL (Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers) and one from AMPAC have won four of the 10 federal defense instrumentation awards granted to Florida universities.

"Each one of these awards is significant in its own right," said M.J. Soileau, UCF's vice president for research. "When you look at the six of them together, especially the receipt of two Career awards in one department, it says a great deal about the impact of UCF research across the country."

The Career award winners, Yongho Sohn and Raj Vaidyanathan are assistant professors with AMPAC and both have joint appointments with Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering. Each received the award for their proposals in materials science and engineering.

The Career Program recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

Vaidyanathan's project, "Neutron, Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction, and Instrumented Indentation Studies of Deformation in Shape-Memory Alloys" focuses on shape memory alloys - materials that change shape with stress or temperature. Vaidyanathan uses various diffraction and nanoindentation methods to determine what makes these memory alloys change and retain their shape.

Sohn's project, "Fundamentals of Multicomponent Diffusion in Multiphase Alloys," will seek to advance the understanding of diffusion process in multicomponent alloys with multiphase microstructure - commonly used as structure and coatings for aerospace, energy and space applications. The goal is to provide a better understanding of this fundamental phenomenon and devise structural materials and coatings that can withstand high temperatures and aggressive environment with enhanced performance, durability and reliability.

Each researcher will receive approximately $400,000 in funding through January 31, 2008.

UCF is one of 75 academic institutions in the country and one of four in Florida to receive Defense University Research Instrumentation Program awards. UCF and the University of Florida each received four awards and Florida State University and the University of Miami each received one. The Department of Defense is allocating $27 million to the awards program that is designed to support the purchase of research instrumentation.

UCF's awards were received by Michael Bass of the School of Optics/CREOL for equipment for research on two- and three-dimensional displays; Leonid Glebov of the School of Optics/CREOL for "Femtosecond Laser for Photo-Thermo Refractive Glass"; Eric Johnson of the School of Optics/CREOL for "Tunable Antenna-Coupled Uncooled Infrared Focal Plane Arrays" and Sudipta Seal of AMPAC and the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering for "Plasma Processing for Nanoparticles to Bulk Materials."