Dr. Kurt Oughstun, professor in UVM's College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS), has received $335,741 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

"It is a true honor to be funded in this way," says Oughstun. "This three-year grant represents a continuation of twenty years of consistent support from AFOSR for my research in computational electromagnetics that began in 1987 when I arrived at UVM."

The grant entitled, "Multi-scale complexity in linear, dispersive pulse propagation phenomena: The molecular theory of dispersive pulse transmission and ultrawideband imaging through complex dispersive systems," will be used for graduate student research, travel to conferences, and the acquisition of new computer support for laboratory work.

"This is yet another example of our stellar faculty members," says CEMS Dean Domenico Grasso. "Dr. Oughstun's world-class expertise in electromagnetic and optical field theory provides the Air Force with a clear opportunity for revolutionary breakthroughs."

AFOSR manages the basic research investment for the U.S. Air Force (USAF). As a part of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), AFOSR's technical experts foster and fund research within the Air Force Research Laboratory, universities, and industry laboratories to ensure the transition of research results to support USAF needs.

Dr. Oughstun's immediate applications of research include both ground- and foliage-penetrating radar, imaging through clouds and walls (the applied focus of this AFOSR grant), and imaging through biological tissue structures for tumor detection. In this regard, a rigorous formulation of the optimum initial pulse shape for imaging through a wall made of a dispersive, absorptive material is developed in terms of a time-domain integral equation that is analogous to that used in the formulation of the transverse spatial eigenmodes of an optical (laser) resonator.

Dr. Oughstun is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, founded in 1916 and organized to increase and diffuse the knowledge of optics, pure and applied; to promote the common interests of investigators of optical problems, of designers and of users of optical apparatus of all kinds; and to encourage cooperation among them.