LNSP received three grants to support new research directions related to its flagship projects on nuclear warhead verification and cargo inspection.
In May 2015, the Carnegie Corporation of New York awarded Prof. R. Scott Kemp a two-year grant to support interdisciplinary scholars working in nuclear security. The funds will support graduate students studying information transport, formal models, and U.S.-Russian cooperation related to LNSP's Zero Knowledge Warhead Verification System.
In June, MIT's Research Support Committee awarded Kemp an NEC Corporation Fund Award for Research in Computation and Communications. The award supports research on physical cryptography, the foundational method upon which LNSP's Warhead Verification System is built.
The Research Support Committee also awarded a Charles E. Reed Faculty Initiative grant to Prof. Areg Danagoulian for new work on monochromatic photon generation. The proposed experiment could improve the applicability of Nuclear Resonance Fluoresence techniques for isotope identification in nuclear security applications by reducing dose while dramatically improving signal-to-background rates.
"We are absolutely delighted to have received these awards," said Prof. Kemp, "The Carenegie and NEC awards will enable us to study a range of important interdisciplinary questions in warhead verification that go beyond the applied nuclear-physics program already supported by the National Nuclear Security Agency. The Reed Award will open up a new area of investigation for LNSP in photon sources related to both of our monochromatic-based projects."