Nine UCSB researchers have received grants totaling more than $4.9 million over three years for projects related to work done at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). LANL and LLNL are the two national laboratories operated by the University of California.

Every year, UC receives an estimated $20 million of federal funding for managing the two laboratories. In 2008, the Regents decided to allocate those dollars to research that is related to the missions of LANL and LLNL and emphasizes collaborations between university faculty, staff, and students, and the research staff of the laboratories. The program received 565 proposals comprising approximately $500 million of research, but only the top 10 percent were awarded grants.

The UCSB researchers include chemist Galen Stucky and his co-principal investigators Eric McFarland, professor of chemical engineering; Horia Metiu, professor of chemistry and biochemistry; and Martin Moskovits, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Among other researchers are Konstadinos Goulias, professor of geography; Trevor Hayton, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry; Gary Leal, professor of chemical engineering; David Awschalom, professor of physics and director of the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation; and Alan Heeger, professor of physics and of materials in the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids.

Awschalom and Heeger will receive funds as part of a team led by UC San Diego researchers. Their aim is to understand the interdependency between spin, charge, and photonic effects on carbon-based hosts such as diamond, graphene, and organic semiconductors.