News Release

PECASE award winner's research likely to improve commercial technologies

Grant and Award Announcement

Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Air Force Office of Scientific Research-sponsored scientist, Dr. Rashid Zia is leading cutting-edge research to enhance higher order emission processes in lanthanide ions.

Lanthanide ions are currently used as leading light emitters in applications ranging from color television and fluorescent lighting to solid-state laser systems.

Zia's research aims to improve the Air Force mission by continuing the development of superior information processing and communication technologies enabling the energetic, spatial and temporal scaling of optoelectronic circuits. Zia anticipates his research will also have a major impact on the commercial sector as well.

With the recent developments of artificial meta-materials, Zia, along with other scientists, will re-examine the magnetic dipole transitions in lanthanide ions.

His work in this field has been so successful that he received the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. These awards recognize outstanding young scientists and engineers at the outset of their careers.

Zia was very excited to receive the PECASE and stated the award, "...represents a culmination of two separate research projects." He plans on using this award to help fund his ongoing research to enhance and direct light emissions with the use of nanoscale fabrication and characterization techniques to engineer light emissions.

"This support means a great deal for our young research laboratory and will allow us to pursue several exciting new projects," he said. He acknowledges several of his colleagues and mentors for this award.

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ABOUT AFOSR:

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), located in Arlington, Virginia, continues to expand the horizon of scientific knowledge through its leadership and management of the Air Force's basic research program. As a vital component of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), AFOSR's mission is to discover, shape and champion basic science that profoundly impacts the future Air Force.


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