The Drop Tube at Marshall Space Flight Center is One of NASA's Research Facilities

NASA has selected 15 researchers to receive grants totaling more than $6.4 million over four years, to conduct space fundamental physics research. This research is expected to expand our understanding of space, time and matter.

Sponsored by NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research, the research offers investigators the advantage of a low-gravity and space environment to enhance understanding of physical and chemical processes associated with fundamental physics.

Researchers will be able to use NASA's microgravity research facilities such as drop-tubes, drop-towers, aircraft and sounding rockets. All 15 grants are for ground-based research. Four are to continue work currently being funded by NASA, while the remaining 11 represent new research efforts.

NASA received 29 proposals in response to this research announcement. The proposals were peer-reviewed by scientific and technical experts from academia and government.

Awardees (by state), their institutions and research titles:

California

Barmatz, Martin Bruce
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Finite Size Scaling of the Isothermal Susceptibility Near the 3He Critical Point

Williams, Gary
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
Simultaneous Superfluid Density and Casimir Thinning Measurements in Thick Films of 4He Near the Lambda Point

Williams, James G.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Improving Lunar Laser Ranging Tests of Gravitational Theory

Turyshev, Slava G.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity (LATOR) Mission Studies

Zhong, Fang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
AC Heat Capacity Measurement Using Gravity Cancellation Approach

Colorado

Jin, Deborah
University of Colorado, Boulder
Boulder, CO
A Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas of Atoms

Ye, Jun
University of Colorado, Boulder
Boulder, CO
Simultaneous Time Keeping and Laser Ranging with an Ultrastable Short Pulse Laser

Georgia

Kuzmich, Alex
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA
Entangled Atomic Clock

Landau, David P.
University of Georgia
Athens, GA
Computer Simulations of Confined Quantum Systems in Microgravity

You, Li
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA
Theoretical Studies of the Generation, Detection, and Applications of Massively Entangled States of Bose Condensed Atoms

Massachusetts

Reasenberg, Robert D.
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Cambridge, MA
A Galilean Laboratory Test of the Equivalence Principle Leading to a Space Station Experiment

Weichman, Peter
Alphatech, Inc.
Burlington, MA
Theoretical Investigations of Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Superfluid Dynamics with Application to Future Ground-based and Microgravity Experiments

New Jersey

Romalis, Michael
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Test of Lorentz and CPT Symmetry with an Ultra-sensitive Atomic Magnetometer

Washington

Gundlach, Jens H.
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Preparation for Space: Torsion Balances and Equivalence Principle Tests for NASA

Nagourney, Warren
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Ultrahigh Resolution Optical Frequency Standards using Trapped Atoms and Single Ions

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