Materials Scientist Selected for Second $500K Young Faculty Award

Materials Scientist Selected for Second $500K Young Faculty Award

A scholar in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) received a second $500,000 Department of Defense (DOD) award for his efforts towards national security research. 

Tim Koeth, an assistant professor in MSE, was first selected for the Young Faculty Award (YFA) Program in 2022, an initiative led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Following two years of results, Koeth was reselected for the Director’s Fellowship this year, a recognition that was presented in mid October. 

“I am honored to have been selected for the YFA and especially proud of my team’s accomplishments to be meritorious of the Director’s Fellowship. My YFA enabled us to observe the nature of electrical breakdown in charge loaded acrylic, something that I have been pursuing for two decades,” he said. 

The results of this research allowed his team to unexpectedly discover a new mode of electrical breakdown, which has been identified as the fastest damage phenomena in solid matter known. “This is precisely what the DARPA YFA is intended for,” said Koeth. 

The purpose of the DARPA program is to select junior faculty in academic and non-profit institutions seeking exposure to the DOE’s projects. 

Selected participants receive a $500,000 grant for a two-year research plan, with an opportunity to be considered for another award in the same amount, named Director’s Fellowship. The program, which first ran in 2006, also connects physical scientists with mentoring and networking opportunities to develop their careers in national security research. 

Earlier this Summer, Koeth was also invited to present his work on the “Seeds of Trinity” at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Special Laboratory Colloquium on July 16. Here are some of the highlights of both accomplishments.

	The assistant professor, who also earned the Director’s Fellowship, presented his research: “A Project to Catechize Dielectric Charging (ACDC).” The professor, shown to the left, is pictured showing a sample of his dielectric discharged glass, which was presented in a recent Science paper earlier this Summer.
	At LANL, Koeth presented “The Seeds of Trinity: Hunting for Lost German World War II Uranium,” a one-hour lecture that covered the beginnings of nuclear weapons, and his journey while uncovering new pieces of history.

December 4, 2024