Staff Report
Scott Tyo, a UNM electrical engineering assistant professor, has received a five-year grant worth $400,000 from the National Science Foundation to continue his research in the field of polarized light.
Tyo will receive the money as a result of his winning a Faculty Early Career Development Award, also known as the CAREER Award, from the foundation.
"CAREER recipients are honored to have been chosen, because it recognizes both the quality of our research and our potential to build upon our early successes," Tyo said in a UNM press release.
Tyo is a member of the Applied Electromagnetics Group, a research team within the electrical engineering department at UNM. He said that in five years, the group will be a distinguished leader in the field of polarized light.
The group will use the funding, Tyo said, to work toward three main objectives in using light polarization - the restriction of light-wave vibrations to one direction - to improve the quality of images.
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First, the group will continue to expand an already-existing experimental research program in optical polarimetry. Tyo said the program operates collaboratively with Sandia National Laboratories, the Air Force Research Laboratory and other industrial partners.
"We will build an in-house laboratory and perform studies on using polarization in remote sensing and on understanding polarization phenomena in optical communications," he said.
Next, the polarimetry research will be integrated into the graduate and undergraduate curricula in applied electromagnetics and other areas of the electrical engineering department.
Tyo said community outreach will also be on the agenda. The group will work on a joint experiment with the Albuquerque Aquarium and Biological Park's K-12 educational programs, he said.
Most people would be familiar with the concept of polarimetry because of polarized sunglasses, which eliminate glare from snow, water and car windows. Tyo said the group's research seeks to analyze the information contained in polarized light to determine when polarization is and is not important.
The third use for the grant money, Tyo said, is to establish a group of researchers made up of undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates and faculty.
"One of the goals of the CAREER program is the development of 'people' and we hope to train future researchers in this program," he said.
