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news
Money given for
laser microscope research
By Larry W. Brunson
Jr.
On-line Forty-Niner
Cal State Long
Beach physics professor Chuhee Kwon received a three-year
grant for $568,474 from the U.S. Air Force to fund research
to develop a variable temperature scanning laser microscope.
Kwon, who has been
at CSULB for three years, was doing research for the microscope
and needed funds from outside services to continue.
"I contacted
the Air Force program manager Harold Weinstock and he encouraged
me to apply for the grant," Kwon said. "He
was very interested in the work I was doing, so I wrote a
proposal."
Two different committees
had looked at the proposals, according to Kwon, and there
was large support for her research.
"I contacted
the officers before, and they supported me and told me to
write the grant," Kwon said. "[Weinstock] told me
I was in a high priority in his program."
The grant was selected
from 92 other equipment proposals and 150 research proposals
that were submitted to the Army, Navy, and Air Force research
offices, Kwon said.
Kwon, who applied
for the grant in January, was notified in May that she would
receive the money. Kwon's award was one of 80 grants totaling
nearly $9 million. The actual funds were disbursed to Kwon
earlier this month. She is now making plans to recruit students
to assist her in studying superconductors.
"I will be
hiring a full-time postdoctoral student, three graduate students,
and five undergraduate students," Kwon said. "I
am trying to recruit community college students as well for
our summer program."
According to Kwon,
the grant money will be used to study high temperature superconductors,
which carry current without producing any resistance.
Kwon will enlist CSULB students, as well as local community
college students to help her with the research.
Students from the
physics graduate program have already signed on to assist
with the research. However, Kwon said she is still looking
for undergraduate and community college students.
"We have students
in the engineering and natural science programs that are interested,
and we put up posters around campus," Kwon said.
The grant will
cover the cost of all the equipment and materials needed,
Kwon said, and it will cover travel expenses.
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