The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship program is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and administered by the Office of Naval Research. This program seeks outstanding researchers to conduct transformative basic research in topic areas of interest to the DoD.  Through the program, select university researchers and students learn about DoD’s current and future challenges, and are introduced to some of the ongoing critical research.  The program fosters long-term relationships between DoD and university researchers, and prepares them for possible entry into the defense and national security workforce.  

Fellows are currently conducting basic research in the areas of quantum information science, neuroscience, nanoscience, novel engineered materials, applied mathematics and statistics that could revolutionize a wide variety of DoD capabilities such as artificial intelligence, position-navigation-timing in denied environments, autonomous system design, decision support tools, and sensor development.  In addition to conducting this innovative, “blue sky” research, the Fellows have opportunities to directly engage with the larger DoD research enterprise and to share their knowledge and insights with DoD military and civilian leaders, researchers in DoD laboratories, and the national security science and engineering community.  Surya Kalidindi’s project is titled “Fusion of inherently incomplete and uncertain multiscale multiphysics materials knowledge in pursuit of novel engineered materials.”