Naval Air Warfare Center/Weapons Division
China Lake, CA

The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWPNS) is the principal Navy, research, development, test, and evaluation center for air warfare systems (except antisubmarine warfare systems) and missile weapon systems. NAWCWPNS employs 6,200 civilian and 1000 military personnel, 2,200 of whom are scientists and engineers. NAWCWPNS is host to the Naval Aviation Science and Technology Office (NAVSTO) Research Office, which consists of 120 scientists, engineers and supporting staff who pursue basic research in diverse areas including energetic materials, propellant evaluation, solid-state and polymer chemistry, fabrication of prototype optical and electronic devices, environmental analysis materials characterization, propulsion and terminal ballistics, signal and image processing, applied mathematics, and the generation, propagation, interaction and detection of electromagnetic waves.

The Michelson and Lauritsen Laboratory complexes provide 6 acres of floor area for research laboratories, offices, and shops. Major resources for research include comprehensive facilities for chemical synthesis, molecularbeam epitaxial (MBE) film growth, optoelectronic polymer film growth, magnetic resonance, infrared, mass and optical spectroscopy, Xray diffraction, surface analysis and electron microscopy, EDX. There are facilities for basic and applied laser spectroscopy, including combustion diagnostics, a thinfilm laboratory, crystalgrowing facilities, metallography, dynamic mechanical testing, optical microscopy, failure analysis, production support, machine shops, and a complete optics shop with unique diamond singlepoint precision machining capability.

Major facilities exist in the NAVSTO Research Office and at various range facilities to support fundamental and applied studies in radar scattering, inverse radar scattering, signal processing, microwave and millimeter wave devices, combustion of propellants, flow dynamics, shock dynamics, and missile propulsion. NAWCWD also maintains a major scientific computing facility. The desktop personal computers within the divisions are networked to the Center's mainframes for increased computing power. Several particular areas of interest are:

Optical Sciences:

Optical properties of solids, optical coatings, ellipsometry, optical scattering, laser effects, surface finishing, optical metrology, optical waveguides, optical materials synthesis.

Electrooptical Technology:

Sensors and seekers, LIDAR and LADAR, compact laser components and devices, nonlinear optical polymers, electrochromic polymers and devices, polymer light-emitting devices.

Electronics:

Microelectronics, compound semiconductors, and MBEgrown heterostructures, thermoelectric materials, conductive polymer devices, CVD source compounds.

Microwave Technology:

Target modeling, automatic target identification, microwave materials, electronic warfare, missile seekers, onedimensional and synthetic aperture radars, and super-directive super-conductive antenna components.

Applied Mechanics:

Detonation physics, warhead dynamics, damage mechanisms and theory, and internal explosions.

Polymer Science:

Polymer synthesis, electrically conducting polymers, nonlinear optical polymers, thin film fabrication, membranes for fuel cells, chemical sensors, supercapacitors, anti-corrosion coatings, structural composites, atomic force microscopy.

Propulsion Technology:

Combustion of propellants, deflagration to detonation transition, combustion instability, fuels and propellant ingredient synthesis, acoustic turbulence/combustion interactions, and ramjet propulsion.

Energetic Materials:

Fuels, explosives, polynitrogen compounds, explosives formulation, propellant components, thermoplastic elastomers, liquid curable elastomers.

Fire and Science Technology:

Fire fighting agents, technology and methods.

Demilitarization:

Recovery and reuse of propellants and explosives, environmentally friendly contained burn of propulsion systems, real time, precision stack gas analysis, and high efficiency, compact incinerators.

Environmental Technologies:

Explore new methods for reducing or eliminating the use of hazardous materials in industrial and DOD processes.

Electromagnetics:

Rough surface scattering, inverse problems, photonic materials, non-linear optics.

Chemistry:

Instrumental analysis, electrochemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, applied spectroscopy, nano-scale synthetic techniques, corrosion prevention.

Material Science:

Polymer science, rheology, materials for high temperature or high stress applications, battery membranes, source compounds for CVD, optical and filter materials, adhesives, and metallurgy.

Targeting Technology:

RF, IR, laser sensors, multi-sensor fusion, automatic target recognition, atmospheric turbulence and imaging.

Human Factors:

Multisensor targeting, manmachine interface, decision aiding.

Embedded Computing:

Simulation and modeling, domain analysis and software re-use, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, software testing and reliability.

MillimeterWave SolidState Technology:

Device and circuits development for high power solidstate transmitters and active aperture phasedarray radars combining quasioptical power.

Numerical Analysis/Digital Signal Processing:

Wavelet theory, pattern recognition, multi-resolution, partial differential equations, fractal compression, optimal smoothing/ interpolation, neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic programming, parallel processing.

NRL Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
American Society for Engineering Education
1818 N Street N.W., Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036

Email: postdocs "at" asee.org
Phone: (202) 331-3525, Fax: (202) 265-8504