Matthew Hirn, MSU assistant professor in the mathematics and computational mathematics, science and engineering departments, was awarded the Director’s Fellowship from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In 2016, Hirn won the DARPA Young Faculty, which aims to consistently establish and sustain groups of young scientists motivated to pursue high-risk, high-reward research by pairing selected researchers with DARPA program managers and providing them with up to $500,000 in funding for two years.
Now, at the end of his initial two-year period for the YFA, Hirn has been selected for the highly competitive Director’s Fellowship. The award extends his YFA research for a third year and provides him with additional funds totaling $250,000.
“It’s gratifying to have DARPA recognize the hard work that my team and I have put into this project,” Hirn said. “Professionally, we are all happy to be able to continue working on it, as we find the research very interesting.”
This is highly competitive and is by no means guaranteed, said Andrew Christlieb, CMSE chair.
“It is awarded only to young investigators seen as leading the field and making real progress in their area of research,” he said. “I congratulate Matt on this well-deserved honor and look forward to his continued success. We are happy to have him as a member of our team.”
Hirn has been collaborating with Yue Qi, associate professor of chemical engineering and materials science in MSU’s College of Engineering, to develop the theory and proof of concept behind algorithms that predict the chemical properties of interest in lithium battery research.
“We have been developing machine learning algorithms for many-particle physics,” Hirn said. “These algorithms try to learn from data the nature of interactions in many-particle systems without having to simulate the system via models from quantum mechanics.”
This is a major acknowledgement of the excellence of Hirn's research, said Keith Promislow, mathematics department chair in the College of Natural Science.
“The award sets him up for a lifetime of interaction with DARPA and guarantees that his students and postdoctoral fellows will be working on the science that propels the United States’ technical interests,” he said. “This is the sort of award that acts as a springboard for a young professor's career."
For more information on the Young Faculty Award and DARPA, visit here.
