USA Participating In State Research Initiative

MOBILE, Ala. — The University of South Alabama (USA) joins a number of other Alabama universities as part of a new $20-million, five-year effort to develop transformative technologies in plasma science and engineering, Business Alabama reports. The partnership is being led by the University of Alabama in Huntsville and funded through the National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The goal of the Future Technologies enabled by Plasma Processes initiative is to develop new technologies using plasma in hard and soft biomaterials, food safety and sterilization and space weather prediction. Other entities involved are the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University, Tuskegee University, Alabama A&M University, Oakwood University and CFD Research Corp. In addition, three national laboratories—Los Alamos National Lab, Sandia National Lab and Princeton Plasma Physics Lab—will participate in the initiative. The grant will build on plasma expertise, research and industrial capacity, as well as a highly trained and capable plasma science and engineering workforce, across Alabama.