Email Article

Printable Page

Students Benefit from Physics Prof's Grant-Getting Skills

By Amanda Warner
Black College Wire

Branislav Vlahovic, a North Carolina Central University associate professor of physics, is passionate about physics. That passion makes him good at getting grants, and when Vlahovic gets grants, that is good news for NCCU students.

Vlahovic�s most recent award is from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This four-year grant netted $1.6 million to conduct research into the best methods of converting solar energy into electricity. The grant also aims to bring NCCU students into the research process.

This academic year alone, the money he has secured will provide more than $140,000 for student stipends and travel to conferences.

Last year, three of his students -- Mariamma Kabon, Kevin Ramkissoon and Anderson Sunda Meya -- did research at a nuclear laboratory in Japan. All three are now enrolled in graduate programs.

Vlahovic, a native of Sisak, Croatia, says he fell in love with physics early in life. �I love physics,� says Vlahovic, �because it gives you answers about the world that surrounds you.�

Both his parents were engineers. �I remember that I was 8 years old when my parents bought me an instruction book with experimental equipment in mechanics and electricity,� says Vlahovic. �I read the whole book on our way home. At home, I performed all the experiments to the last. It took me the whole night.�

Vlahovic went on to get his doctorate in physics at Zagreb University, a school established in 1595.

After five years at Duke University working in nuclear physics in a faculty exchange program, Vlahovic took a teaching position at NCCU, where he has been since 1995.

�Central gave me the freedom to establish my own research programs,� he says. �Unlike other institutions . . . where you have to fit into already established programs.�

Once here, he set himself to the task of getting grants. �There were no start up funds for my research, so it was hard in the first few years,� he says. Since arriving at NCCU, Vlahovic has won more than $2 million in grants.

From the Department of Defense, he brought in $980,000 for research in electron beam material processing.

From the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Department of Energy, he brought in $140,000 to improve the efficiency of solar cells.

From the National Science Foundation, he brought in $123,000 to develop equipment for high energy nuclear laboratories.

From a U.S. Army grant, he brought in four $15,000 scholarships for NCCU students.

�You might be surprised,� says Vlahovic, �but our physics department is leading research in several areas, from experimental to theoretical and computational physics.�

Amanda Warner is a student at North Carolina Central University who writes for the Campus Echo.