Professor Pranab Das and Georgetown University professor Dan Blair '97 received a $55,000 grant to expand their current collaboration.
Das and Blair, along with their collaborator Zvonimir Dogic at Brandeis University, are completing the first year of a three-year, $1 million-dollar project to explore “active matter.” The grant from the John Templeton Foundation supports basic scientific research as well as a substantial effort to expand the study of this kind of material in the philosophy of science.
This year, Das worked with foundation staff to develop an expansion of the project including a gathering of world-class philosophers at Georgetown in June 2017 to map a strategy for future research. The goal of this group is to generate a substantial planning document – a so-called “white paper” — outlining potential research collaborations and funding requests.
Final approval for the more than $55,000 request was received in October and the white paper team has now begun work leading up to the meeting next summer.