OCR Text |
Show U. Goes With Federal Program graduate program, and provide additional ad-ditional equipment pertaining to the rocket fuel research. Recognition of the "high quality and great potential" of the College of Engineering was cited by University Uni-versity Provost Alfred C. Emery as the major reason the school has been given "this opportunity to reach this high level of excellence years before it would have been possible without the grant." "It will give the University a new capacity to support Utah's extensive exten-sive aerospace industry with an expanded training and research program." The Department of Defense has selected the University of Utah to participate in a federal program to develop academic centers of excellence ex-cellence in science and technology, a project which is expected to bring three to four million dollars in defense funds to Utah over a 10-year period. The University's request to establish estab-lish a center for research in chemistry chem-istry and mechanics of rocket fuels in the College of Engineering was granted in accordance with "Project "Proj-ect Themis," a Department of Defense De-fense program. Approval of the initial amount of project funds for a two-year period pe-riod will be made next week, according ac-cording to Prof. J. E. Fitzgerald, chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering and one of three "senior investigators" named in the proposal to head the project. Professor Pro-fessor Fitzgerald said he expects that the initial funds, "somewhere near half a million," will be allocated allo-cated to immediately expand the College of Engineering staff and Professor Fitzgerald said the University's research in "the chemistry chem-istry and mechanics of combustion with application to rocket engine systems" eventually will give scientists sci-entists detailed information on the property of rocket fuel during combustion. com-bustion. "Practical application should enable en-able scientists to predict the reactions re-actions of a fuel when it is ignited on rocket lauchings. "Millions of dollars could be saved by knowing beforehand what to expect from a rocket fuel. Discoveries Dis-coveries will be made in the laboratory, labora-tory, instead of on the launch pad," he said. Professor Fitzgerald and two other University professors will function as a three-man team directing di-recting the project Dr. Max L. Williams, Dean of the College of Engineering, and Dr. Norman W. Ryan, Professor of Chemical Engineering. En-gineering. The Air Force Office of Scientific Research will monitor the project. |