Klaus Bartschat, the Ellis and Nelle Levitt Professor of Physics, recently received two grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Bartschat will receive funds annually for three years to continue his research in two state-of-the-art projects.
Since 1991, Bartschat has received NSF funding for his Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (TAMOP) research. His most recent award of $106,928 per year will go toward studying collisions of photons (light), electrons, and heavy charged particles with atoms, ions, and molecules.
Bartschat will also receive more than $68,000 per year for his second research project, which focuses on computational physics. His group is developing computer programs using innovative approaches that produce significantly more accurate results than other computer codes.
Data generated is used in modeling plasmas for the lighting industry, plasma-etching discharges, and understanding the physics of lasers, stars, and planetary atmospheres. An emerging area of research focuses on the effects of ultrashort intense laser pulses.
Bartschat and two post-graduate researchers, Oleg Zatsarinny and Xiaoxu Guan, lead select Drake University undergraduate students in the research projects.
“Drake undergraduates participating in this research get excellent preparation and basically an entrance ticket to very prestigious graduate schools,” Bartschat says.
The NSF is an independent federal agency that promotes the progress of science. The peer-reviewed funded research proposals, like Bartschat’s, are deemed the most rigorous and promising.