Kenneth Knappenberger Jr. and Piyush Kumar have been named winners of awards given by the 2010 Air Force Office of Research Young Investigator Program. Knappenberger is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, while Kumar is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science. Among just 38 winners across the United States, the two men are the only winners in Florida in 2010. Each of them will receive approximately $120,000 per year for three years. The title of Knappenberger’s planned research project is “Magnetoplasmonic Nanomaterials: A Route to Predictive Photocatalytic, Light-Harvesting and Ferrofluidic Properties.” According to Knappenberger, “Our goal is to understand how nanostructures can be tailored to improve devices, especially in the area of energy conversion.” Kumar’s project is titled “Geometric Clustering and Its Applications.” Kumar plans to build on his earlier research in geometric optimization, which he says has applications in such areas as geographic information systems and surface reconstruction, among other things. In 2007, Kumar received a prestigious early-career award from the National Science Foundation. To read more, go to http://www.fsu.com/News/Two-Researchers-Selected-for-Air-Force-Young-Investigator-Awards/