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Michael Padilla, 277-1816

June 15, 2001

UNM receives NSF grant for $366,000 to study quantum dynamics in Physics

The University of New Mexico Physics Department was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for $366,000 for three years to conduct theoretical research on quantum dynamics of electrons in organic materials.

V. M. Kenkre, physics and astronomy professor, serves as principal investigator and David Dunlap, physics and astronomy associate professor, is co-investigator for research on “quasiparticle transport in organic materials: vibrational dressing, dynamic disorder, and nanoscale confinement.” This award is based on fundamental theoretical work done by Kenkre and Dunlap, together and separately, and in collaboration with their colleague Paul Parris from the University of Missouri, during the last two decades.

Results of the research could lead to great and useful progress in the devices industry as well as fundamental knowledge about quantum dynamics of electrons.

“The potential use of the research in this grant is for the construction of light emitting devices (led’s), photocopying industry and tiny electronic elements of near-molecular size,” Kenkre said. “Industries such as IBM, Kodak and Xerox, are very interested in our theoretical work in this field and their research scientists will visit us and exchange ideas with us for this purpose in the context of this grant.”

The main goal of the grant is to understand at a fundamental level the quantum dynamics of electrons and related quasiparticles interacting strongly with vibrations, with two outcomes: progress in basic physics, and progress in the making of devices based on organic materials.

Kenkre said that through this grant, research recognition at UNM is enhanced. “This NSF grant brings outstanding investigators from other research centers to UNM,” he said. “Through this grant intellectual exchanges with theorists and experimentalists occur with UNM playing a central role. Students learn at undergraduate and graduate levels about exciting frontiers of physics research.”

Pure theory grants with such high amounts from the NSF are rare. “This grant is actually for more than half a million dollars, about $150,000 of which will be used by our collaborators at the University of Missouri,” Kenkre said.

Kenkre is also the director of the Consortium of the Americas for Interdisciplinary Science. He served as the director for UNM’s Center for Advanced Studies from 1996 to 2000, and has been professor of physics at UNM since 1984. Dunlap joined the faculty at UNM in 1989 and is currently associate professor of physics.

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