{"id":942,"date":"2012-07-15T16:21:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T20:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=942"},"modified":"2017-07-28T16:28:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T20:28:35","slug":"extreme-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2012\/07\/extreme-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Extreme Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"meteorite\"<\/a>
Cross section of a meteorite, recovered in Antarctica in 1988, taken with cross-polarized light microscopy. By studying samples such as this, scientists can understand how meteorites fragment when entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In mid-April, the U.S. Army awarded the Whiting School of Engineering one of its biggest grants ever, worth as much as $90 million over 10 years, to form an institute that will push the frontiers of basic science to better understand what happens to materials in “extreme dynamic environments.”<\/p>\n

The Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI)<\/a>, to be headed by K.T. Ramesh, the Alonzo G. Decker Jr. Professor of Science and Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering<\/a> at Johns Hopkins, will unite the brightest minds in university laboratories and industry nationwide to conduct basic research, down to the atomic level, into what happens to metals, ceramics, polymers, and other materials subjected to extreme impact. One ultimate goal: to develop new materials to be used in lightweight protective armor for U.S. troops, civilians, and structures.<\/p>\n

This push for fundamental research comes amid an increasingly insecure global environment, in which military, academic, and industry leaders agree on the need to better understand how materials behave under conditions such as nuclear explosions, massive volcanic eruptions, and even asteroid impact. “We are looking to understand the dynamic processes that occur in these events,” says Ramesh.<\/p>\n