NASA has selected 41 researchers to receive grants totaling more than $15 million over four years to conduct fundamental physics research on Earth and in space. This research will seek knowledge that will expand understanding of space, time and
matter.
 
Sponsored by NASA’s Office of Biological and Physical Research, the research offers investigators the advantage of a low-gravity environment to enhance understanding of physical, biological and chemical processes associated with fundamental physics.
 
Researchers will use NASA’s microgravity research facilities such as drop-tubes, drop-towers, aircraft flying parabolic trajectories, and sounding rockets. Flight-definition investigators will work toward experiments on a space-flight test bed, such as the International Space Station and Space Shuttle.
 
Thirty-six of the grants are for ground-based research, while the remaining five are for flight-definition projects. Sixteen of these grants are to continue work currently being funded by NASA, but the majority (24) represent new research efforts.
 
NASA received 109 proposals in response to its research announcement in this area. These proposals were each peer reviewed by scientific and technical experts from academia and government.
 
A list of awardees (by state), their institutions, and research titles can be found on the Internet at:
 
    ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-183a.txt


Flight Definition Tasks


California

Professor David L. Goodstein
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
The CQ Experiment: Enhanced Heat Capacity of Superfluid Helium
in a Heat Flux

Dr. Inseob Hahn
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Measurement of the Coexistence Curve in 3He near the Liquid-Gas
Critical Point in Microgravity

Connecticut

Dr. Mark A. Kasevich
Yale University
New Haven, CT
Atom Interferometer Test of the Equivalence Principle

Massachusetts

Dr. Irwin, I. Shapiro
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Cambridge, MA
Test of the Principle of Equivalence in an Einstein Elevator

Maryland

Dr. William D. Phillips
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD
Condensate Laboratory Aboard the Space Station (CLASS)

Ground-Based Tasks

Arizona

Professor Pierre Meystre
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ
Atom Optics in Controlled and Microgravity Environments

California

Dr. Guenter Ahlers
The Regents of the University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA
The Superfluid Transition of 4He Under Unusual Conditions


Dr. Talso C. Chui
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Heat Current, Q, Effects on the Superfluid Transition (QUEST)

Dr. Melora E. Larson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Experiments Along Coexistence near Tricriticality (EXACT)

Dr. John Andrew Lipa
Leland Stanford Junior University
Stanford, CA
The Effects of Large-Scale One-Dimensional Confinement on the
Specific Heat of Helium Very Near the Lambda Line and Testing
the Renormalization Group Theory of Matter near the Superfluid
Transition of Helium on the Space Station

Dr. Yuanming Liu
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Effects of Heat Current on the Superfluid Transition in a Low-
Gravity Simulator

Professor Douglas Dean Osheroff
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Tests of Fundamental Physics through Studies of Superfluid
Helium Three

Dr. Adrian Ponce
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Biomimetic Self-Assembly of Mesostructures in Microgravity: The
Nature of the Capillary Bond

Dr. Fang Zhong
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Measurements of the Thermal Conductivity near the Liquid-Vapor
Critical Point of Helium-3 and Helium-4

Colorado

Dr. Leo W. Hollberg
NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Boulder, CO
Advanced Optical Frequency Standard for Space

Florida

Dr. Efstratios Manousakis
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL
Predicting Static and Dynamic Critical Properties of Bulk and
Confined Helium


Georgia

Professor David P. Landau
University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc.
Athens, GA
Computer Simulations of Confined Quantum Systems in
Microgravity

Illinois

Professor David M. Ceperley
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Urbana, IL
Prediction of the Properties of Liquid Helium from Computer
Simulation

Indiana

Professor V. Alan Kostelecky
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN
Theoretical Studies of Lorentz and CPT Symmetry

Massachusetts

Professor Wolfgang Ketterle
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Towards Precision Experiments with Boise-Einstein Condensates
II

Dr. Ronald L. Walsworth
Smithsonian Institution, Astrophysical Observatory
Cambridge, MA
Probing Planck Scale Physics with a 21Ne/3He Zeeman Maser

Professor Richard A. Ferrell
University of Maryland, College Park
College Park, MD
Theory of Phas Transitions and Simulations in Superfluid Helium
of Cosmological Phenomena

Montana

Dr. Kenneth L. Nordtvedt
Northwest Analysis
Bozeman, MT
Optimizing Science from a STEP Mission: Equivalence Principle
Violating Multipole Moments of the Non-Spherical Earth and
Mission Observation Schedules

New Mexico

Professor Alex V. Babkin
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM
Surface Physics with Helium Crystals in Microgravity


North Carolina

Professor John E. Thomas
Duke University
Durham, NC
Quantum Coherence in Ultracold Fermionic Vapors

New Jersey

Dr. Harry Kojima
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Piscataway, NJ
Stress Driven Instability on Helium-4 Crystals

New York

Professor Carl A. Batt
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
Biodegradable Polymers

Dr. Morris A. Benjaminson
NSR-Touro Collge Applied Bioscience Research Consortium
Bay Shore, NY
Gravity, Time Interactions and the Cycle of Life

Professor Lois Pollack
Cornell Univeristy
Ithaca, NY
Microscale Mixer for Protein Folding

Ohio

Professor Tin-Lun (Jason) Ho
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Quantum Gases in Novel Environments: Optical Lattices and
Rapidly Rotating Potentials

Professor Charles S. Rosenblatt
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH
Simulated-Microgravity Measurement Techniques for the Study of
Dynamic Effects in Phospholipid Surfactants

Dr. Allen Wilkinson
Microgravity Fluid Physics Branch, NASA Glenn Research Center
Cleveland, OH
Measuring the Distribution Function Moments of Sub-Correlatin
Length Critical Fluid Fluctuations

Pennsylvania

Dr. Tauseef Butt
LifeSensors, Inc.
Malvern, PA
Microfabrication of a Cell-bases Estrogen Sensor Switch on a
Plastic Microchip

Professor Moses H.W. Chan
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA
Critical Casimir Forces

Rhode Island

Professor Humphrey J. Maris
Brown University
Providence, RI
Coalescence of Superfluid Helium Drops in a Microgravity
Environment

Professor James M. Valles
Brown University
Providence, RI
Magnetic Field Gradient Levitation System for Physics and
Biophysics

Texas

Professor Daniel J. Heinzen
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
Search for Time Reversal Symmetry Violation with Laser-Cooled
Atoms

Professor Randall G. Hulet
Rice University
Houston, TX
Superfluid Phase Transition in an Ultracold Fermi Gas

Washington

Professor Eric G. Adelberger
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Feasibility Study for a Space-Based Test of the Strong
Equivalence Principle using Lunar Laser Ranging

Dr. Warren Nagourney
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Ultrahigh Resolution Optical Frequency Standard Using
Individual Indium Ions

Wisconsin

Professor Thad G. Walker
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI
All-Optical High Density Cold Atom Sources