Title: Building Partnerships and Enabling Discovery
Abstract: The U.S. Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG) is the international arm of the Office of Naval Research, an agency focused on enabling science and technology for the Naval Research Enterprise. ONRG Science Directors travel the world to learn about the exciting research underway at universities and in industry and to help enable foundational, early-stage research. As program officers for ONRG, they seek out the crazy, blue-sky ideas that are potentially transformative leading to rapid advances in science and technology. As early funders, they are only interested in foundational research that is agnostic to an application. They offer support through a variety of funding mechanisms that will be discussed in this presentation.
Speaker: Dr. Scott A. Walper is the Science Director for Synthetic Biology for the Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG), a component of the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research whose mission is to enable research and technology that benefit the Navy and the Nation. ONRG serves as the international arm of this agency with a mission of building collaborations with international researchers and enabling transformative science.
Prior to joining ONRG, Dr. Walper was a research scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory leading a team of researchers focused on building capabilities in synthetic biology within the Naval Research Enterprise and the U.S. Department of Defense. His research focused on harnessing the natural processes of microbial species and re-engineering them for applications in cell-free catalysis, sensing, and materials development. Projects of the Walper lab included 1) the production of highly-stable, catalytic bio-based nanoparticles that could be used for the degradation of chemical compounds such as pesticides; 2) engineering gut bacteria to sense and respond to the chemical signals of pathogenic bacteria; and 3) the production of ultra-thin, transparent cellulose films that could be used as a platform for wearable electronic devices. Dr. Walper also contributed to numerous other programs across the Naval Research Enterprise and other Department of Defense partner labs allowing him to contribute his expertise to diverse topics such as cell-free biosensors, phage-based therapeutics, recombinant antibody diagnostics, and nanoparticle-assembled catalytic systems.
Science Directors of ONRG cover a range of technology areas range from synthetic biology to quantum science. Our mission is to enable foundational research through grants to support Blur Sky concepts and to foster collaboration between international researchers and the U.S. through workshop support and travel awards to facilitate visits to the U.S. and engagement with Naval scientists & engineers, program officers, and leaders.
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