Two USC laboratories were among 196 nationwide to receive funding under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP).

Andrea Armani, left, and Michelle Povinelli

Andrea Armani and Anupam Madhukar, both faculty members in the Mork Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, had successful applications.

Armani will receive funding for "Instrumentation to Rapidly Characterize Micro- and Nano-Fabricated Devices for Integrated Photonics and Biodetection" from the Office of Naval Research. Michelle Povinelli of the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering is co-PI on the project.

Madhukar's award is for "Synthesis and In-Situ Characterization of Highly Heterogeneous Nanostructures," and comes from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Madhukar also has an appointment in the LAS Department of Physics and in the Viterbi School's Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Anupam Madhukar

The DURIP grants for this year total $38.7 million, with individual grants ranging  from $50,000 to $930,000 and averaging approximately $235,000.  The program  "supports the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that augments current university capabilities or develops new university capabilities to perform cutting-edge defense research," according to the announcment. 

"DURIP meets a critical need by enabling university researchers to purchase scientific equipment costing $50,000 or more to conduct DoD-relevant research. Researchers generally have difficulty purchasing instruments costing that much under research contracts and grants."