Award Data

Diminishing domestic helium supplies and a growing dependence on foreign sources of helium, such as helium produced in Russia, have created severe shortages of this critical gas for various facets of the U.S. economy, including medicine, research, manufacturing, and consumer goods. This proposal aims to address this vulnerability in the U.S. supply chain through the development of a novel family o ...

Current single-crystal neutron diffractometers have performed remarkably well and have contributed significantly to the research of structural problems in diverse areas including chemistry, earth sciences, materials science, engineering, and solid-state physics. The current instruments, however, are associated with three main issues: 1) lack of portability due to complexity of detector arrangement ...

Experiments probing the nature of the neutrino are searching for the rare nuclear process of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0?ßß). The state-of-the-art bolometer-based experiment is CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events). Although CUORE is one of the most sensitive 0?ßß experiments to date, further background reduction is needed to clearly observe this rare process. The nex ...

Advanced photon sources capable of providing intense X-ray beams over a wide energy range have proven to be outstanding resources for studying bio-energy processing-induced protein molecular structure changes in plant systems via static and time-resolved X-ray diffraction. The hard X-ray regime of the available flux also promises to significantly enhance the applicability of these sources to yield ...

Nuclear physics (NP) experiments require large channel count detectors to accurately monitor, or trace events induced by sub-atomic particles. Gamma- and X-ray imaging and spectroscopy instruments are frequently utilized to detect, localize, and characterize nuclear materials, photons, or particles of light. These detector systems include a large number of simultaneously working detector elements. ...

C55-13c-270336The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Carbon Storage program is focused on ramping up commercial scale carbon capture and geologic storage (CCUS) operations across the US to combat the release of CO2, a potent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming, into the atmosphere. Each one of these commercial scale operations will sequester greater than one metric megaton per year of CO ...

Every particle collider experiment needs large acceptance and low mass tracking detectors between the interaction point and the calorimetric detectors. The current trend of increasing the luminosity of the next generation of particle colliders will significantly increase the number of possible hit combinations, making it extremely difficult to identify tracks with the current tracking detectors. T ...

Changing weather patterns, increasingly impervious urban surfaces, and deteriorating stormwater drainage infrastructure has increased the likelihood of flooding in urban areas and generated higher variability in flow dynamics. An improved understanding of urban hydrology through continuous, real-time monitoring is required to determine the root causes, associated impact, and methods of mitigating ...

Water management, stormwater control, and other flooding concerns present common and significant issues in many urban environments. As communities look to tackle issues related to urban flooding and streamflow, automated sensors that are low-cost and easy to install will be crucial to monitoring and restoration efforts. The unique challenges posed by urban stream monitoring require an innovative a ...

Our warming climate is amplifying environmental and human health problems in urban areas. Heat island effects, flooding, droughts, altered pollutant transport patterns, and human respiratory stress are examples of interactions between macro- and micro-climates that impact urban areas. The share of the global population living in cities is expected to rise to 80% by 2050, compared to 55% today. Emi ...