Dillard University signs five-year agreement with U.S. Army Research Laboratory

As an extension of its current grants funding in physics, Dillard University has signed a five-year, multi-task Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). The agreement is based on the discovery of a new materials system for detecting, analyzing, and reacting to environmental changes.

Over the last fifteen years, the Dillard University physics program has gained a national standing in graduating African-American physicists who have earned advanced degrees. During that time, the University established a strong working relationship with the United States Department of Defense to perform research.

Dr. Abdalla Darwish, Dillard’s first Presidential Professor, has long-standing relationships with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Army Research office (ARO) and the Army Research Lab (ARL). He said, “The funding that we have secured will go to support student research during summer for 10 weeks for hands-on training and continued work throughout the upcoming academic year.”

Through the agreement, the ARL will provide core competencies in cryogenic nanostructuring process and smart materials process sciences, while Dillard will provide core expertise in related analytical materials sciences and in a physics multi beam pulsed laser deposition process, recently invented by Professor Darwish himself.

For more information, see the full news release from Dillard University here.