Wednesday, February 1, 2012

2.3.12 / CREOL 102 / 1-1:30pm / Overview: “AFOSR: Basic Research for the United States Air Force”, Thomas W. Hussey

Overview: “AFOSR: Basic Research for the United States Air Force”, Thomas W. Hussey

CREOL 102

Friday, February 3, 2012 / 1-1:30pm

Dr. Thomas W. Hussey, Chief Scientist

Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Abstract:

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) is the arm of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) that focuses exclusively on the far term. Across the Air Force there is a shared vision of dominating air, space, and cyber. The AFOSR vision and mission have the unique feature of focusing on revolutionary, transformational basic research, producing today’s breakthrough science for tomorrow’s Air Force. In addition to supporting AFRL in-house basic research, AFOSR provides over $300M/year in funding to over 200 leading U.S. universities. This presentation describes the strategy that underlies AFOSR investment in basic research and the broad technology areas in which its investment is focused. Examples of leading edge basic research will be provided and funding mechanisms will be described.

Biography:

Dr. Thomas W. Hussey is the Chief Scientist of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), located in Arlington, VA. AFOSR is the Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) responsible for executing the Laboratory’s basic research portfolio. Dr. Hussey is a member of the scientific and professional cadre of AF senior executives and is responsible for assuring the quality of AFOSR research and advising the Director on future emphasis for funding priorities. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. Dr. Hussey joined the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in 1975 as an active-duty AF officer and was responsible for the theoretical and numerical modeling of high-energy-density z-pinch plasmas for nuclear weapons effects simulation. He was first to quantify the effect of non-linear Rayleigh-Taylor instability on fast, hollow-core z pinches. He left the Air Force in 1979 and joined Sandia National Laboratories where he worked on a number of high-energy-density plasma problems, including z pinches, x-ray lasers, cathode plasma formation and evolution, hohlraum physics, and high-current-density electrodes. In 1991, Dr. Hussey joined the Phillips Laboratory, a predecessor organization to AFRL, to stand up a group responsible for the numerical simulation of high-energy-density plasmas. That group has subsequently been instrumental in developing and distributing, both inside and outside DOD, a series of plasma physics simulation codes. In 1995 he took over management of a division with responsibility for high-power microwave (HPM) source and pulsed-power development. From 1997 to 2000 he was a program manager for a customer-directed HPM effort and initiated development of a one-on-one engagement model effort for HPM electronic attack. In 2000 he was promoted to ST, named Senior Scientist for HPM Plasma Science, and served as Technical Advisor for the HPM division. In 2006 he was named Chief Scientist of AFOSR.

For More Information:

Bahaa E. A. Saleh

Dean, College of Optics and Photonics

besaleh @ creol. ucf. edu

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