Research Opportunities at ARL's Army Research Office (ARO)—ARO Overview, Sciences of Extreme Materials Branch and The Materials Design Program

Dr. Evan Runnerstrom currently serves as the Program Manager for Materials Design at the United States DEVCOM ARL Army Research Office. He will present an overview of ARL and ARO and describe funding opportunities available from ARO. He will also present the research interests of ARO’s Sciences of Extreme Materials Branch and describe specific research thrusts underway in the Materials Design Program. The Materials Design Program pursues new smart materials concepts through high-impact fundamental science in self-assembly, reconfigurable materials, and computer-aided materials design. The long-term goal of the program is to effect scientific advances needed in self-assembly and soft materials to enable the creation of three-dimensional materials with arbitrary geometry and composition, functionality, and dynamic reconfiguration. If successful, this program will break free of the limitations of conventional top-down processing techniques (e.g., photolithography) and enable the realization of Army-relevant 3D metamaterials; multifunctional materials; reconfigurable optics and electronics; and biomimetic shape-, color-, and texture-changing materials.