Professor Christopher Limbach Recognized with DARPA Young Faculty Award
U-M professor awarded DARPA grant for new project
Assistant Professor Christopher Limbach was among the most recent selections to receive a Young Faculty Award (YFA) through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Through this grant, Limbach will be working on his project, “View-Obstructed Delivery of Lunar Power by Optomechanically Guided Beams” within the Photonic Sensing and Flow Interaction Laboratory (PSFIL), which he heads at the University of Michigan.
Established in 2006, the YFA program has focused on identifying and engaging with junior faculty in early-career research positions, exposing them to needs expressed by the Department of Defense. Through this program, researchers at U.S. institutions early in their careers are provided funding and mentorship to advance innovative research, enabling transformative DOD capabilities.
Since the program’s start it has nurtured the careers of more than 500 researchers from universities and nonprofit institutions across the nation. The long-term goal of the YFA program is to build a pipeline for the next generation of academic scientists and engineers.
Professor Limbach joined the U-M Department of Aerospace Engineering in 2022, with a focus on laser measurements techniques for hypersonic flows and plasmas, and laser applications to space propulsion and power. Earlier in 2024, he received a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) to develop technology to better predict spacecraft re-entry radiation by pioneering new ways to measure the plasma behind shockwaves in laboratory settings, simulating the conditions of spacecraft re-entry.