NASA AWARDS MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH GRANTS NASA has selected 26
researchers to receive grants totaling more than $6 million over five years
for fundamental physics research in microgravity.
Sponsored by NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Science and
Applications, Washington, DC, the objective of the fundamental physics
in microgravity research program is to test clearly posed hypotheses to
increase the understanding of basic physics and the role of gravity in
nature's processes. Increasing knowledge of fundamental physics will
expand our understanding of space, time and matter and may provide the
foundation for new technology advances.
Twentyof the grants are for ground-based research, while the remaining
six are for flight definition projects. Eight of these grants are
for continuation of work currently being funded by NASA; the remaining
proposals represent new research efforts.
NASA received86 proposals in response to this research announcement.
These proposals were each peer reviewed by scientific and technical experts
from academia and government. In addition, proposals selected for
flight definition were reviewed in terms of engineering feasibility by
a team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Following are the list of the grant recipients
Flight Definition Grants
California
Dr. Melora Larson
"Experiments Along Coexistence Near
Tricriticality (EXACT)"
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Dr. John Andrew Lipa
"Fundamental Physics Experiments
With Superconducting Cavity -
Stabilized Oscillators on Space Station"
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Dr. Feng-Chuan Liu
"Critical Thermal Transport in a
Cross- over Range from 3- dimensional
to 2- dimensional Behavior"
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
California
Dr. John Andrew Lipa
"High Resolution Study of the Critical
Region of Oxygen Using Magnetic
Levitation"
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Dr. John Andrew Lipa
"A Test of Supersymmetry Theory
by Searching for Anomalous Short Range
Forces"
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Professor Richard E. Packard
"Superfluid Gyroscopes for Space"
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
Mr. Pat R. Roach
"A Microgravity Helium Dilution
Cooler"
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA
Professor Peter Taborek
"Helium III - Helium IV Mixtures
and Droplets Stabilized in Cesiated
Containers"
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA
Dr. Mark A. Kasevich
"Atom Interferometry in a Microgravity
Environment"
Yale University
New Haven, CT
Dr. Ronald L. Walsworth
"Ground-Based Investigations with
the Cryogenic Hydrogen Maser and the
Double- Bulb Rubidium Maser"
Smithsonian Institution
Cambridge, MA
Dr. William D. Phillips
"Evaporative Cooling and Bose Condensates
in Microgravity: Picokelvin Atoms in
Space"
National Institute of Standards
and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD
Professor Jeevak M. Parpia
"The Effect of Thermal History,
Temperature Gradients, and Gravity on
Capillary Condensation of Phase Separated
Liquid Helium III - Helium IV Mixtures
in Aerogel"
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
Dr. Donald T. Jacobs
"Turbidity and Universality Around
a Liquid-Liquid Critical Point"
The College of Wooster
Wooster, OH