The National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation of Arlington, Va., has funded a multimillion-dollar engineering research center at Princeton University in New Jersey. The goal of the Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment center is to produce sensor technology with the ability to detect minute amounts of chemicals found in the atmosphere. The proposed devices are intended to monitor air quality, from factory emissions to human breath. Forty faculty members, 30 graduate students and 30 undergraduates from six universities will collaborate with industrial partners to perform fundamental science and to commercialize the findings. The foundation’s funding in the first year is $2.97 million, and funding from all industrial and academic sources is expected to total $40 million over 10 years.