Enhancing Postdoctoral Training in DoD Photonics Research for Under-represented Minorities
Abstract
The grant s goal is to assist underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows from historically black serving institutions in the United States with their career development activities. Participants professional growth and training will be guided by mentors who are dedicated to seeing them succeed in biomedical or medical research careers. The proposed program will concentrate on educating postdoctoral researchers from HBCU institutions in the most cutting-edge procedures and approaches in bio photonics and biomedical optics. With the help of this extensive program, students and postdoctoral fellows will be helped to develop vital professional skills that will complement their academic training and technical expertise and improve their readiness for careers in industry, defense, non-governmental organizations, and/or academia. This project focuses on addressing major barriers that postdoctoral scholars face in their pursuit of academic research posts. In particular, it accomplishes this by enabling academics to publish in highly specialized and cutting-edge research domains. Which may not be accessible to young scientists from disadvantaged backgrounds because of lack of specialized equipment or lack of institutional knowledge. Specific research projects will be made available in three key areas of DOD interest, spanning the range of biomedical technologies of critical importance to military medical photonics. These include damage to the brain and central nervous system, heart rate and blood flow monitoring, and skin and burns care. Along with guided research participants will be encouraged to develop core skills necessary to gain future funding and employment opportunities. The program will use ongoing summer HBCU STEM training programs at UCI and BLIMC to recruit under-represented minorities. The Military Medical Photonics program at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic will be leveraged, expanding upon an ongoing AFOSR Center Grant titled "Advanced Optical Technologies for Defense Trauma and Critical Care" for the planned DoD research initiatives (BLIMC). The initiative will use newly built UCI Core Optical Laboratory Resource (COLR) facilities, which are housed in the Convergent Optical Sciences Initiative (COSI) space at the Beall Applied Innovation Center (BAI).
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 28, 2023
- Source ID
- W911NF2310209
Entities
People
- Daryl Preece
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of California, Irvine