WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is earmarking $8.6 million to support 19 research initiatives in high-energy-laser weapons, Pentagon leaders announced Dec. 27.

The selected projects will explore physics and technology in a wide range of areas relevant to high-energy-laser weapons, including chemical lasers, solid-state lasers, free-electron lasers, adaptive optics, and the interaction of laser beams with target materials.

Research project grants are coming from officials of the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office, a new organization formed in June 2000 to manage a DOD-wide program to revitalize high-energy-laser science and technology research.

The 19 project awards are going to the following investigators and organizations:

-- Alexander A. Betin from Raytheon in El Segundo, Calif.;

-- Gon-Yen Shen from Raytheon in Danbury, Conn., (2 projects);

-- Lloyd C. Brown from General Atomics in San Diego, Calif.;

-- Charles Clendening from TRW in Redondo Beach, Calif.;

-- Stephen C. Gottschalk from STI Optronics in Bellevue, Wash.;

-- Olga Kocharovskaya from Texas Engineering Experiment Station in College Station, Texas;

-- George R. Neil from the Department of Energy's Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News, Va.;

-- Rodney Petr from Science Research Laboratory in Somerville, Mass.;

-- David N. Plummer from Logicon in Albuquerque, N.M.;

-- Thomas Price from Xinetics in Devens, Mass.;

-- Fred Rigby from SAIC in Albuquerque, N.M.;

-- Wolfgang Rudolf from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M.;

-- John Russell from the Directed Energy Professional Society in Albuquerque, N.M.;

-- Richard Schlecht from Lasergenics in San Jose, Calif.;

-- Peter Vorobieff from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M.;

-- Robert E. Waldo from TRW in Redondo Beach Calif.;

-- Michael Wickham from TRW in Redondo Beach Calif.; and

-- Luis E. Zapata from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.

The awards, announced by Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology Delores Etter, results from a competitive review of 56 proposals, which were evaluated by a U.S. government team of experts from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military Services, and defense agencies.

More information on the High Energy Laser program is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.dtic.mil/dusdst/JTO_newsletter.html.