The collapse of the Soviet Union has seen the emergence of its unprecedentedly comprehensive global secret military mapping project and the commercial availability of a vast number of detailed topographic maps and city plans at several scales.  Meer

The top quark is by far the heaviest known fundamental particle with a mass nearing that of a gold atom. Because of this strikingly high mass, the top quark has several unique properties and might play an important role in electroweak symmetry breaking—the mechanism that gives all elementary particles mass.  Meer

This innovative work investigated two models where the muonium-antimuonium oscillation process was mediated by massive Majorana neutrinos and sneutrinos.  Meer

Speech is the most natural mode of communication and yet attempts to build systems which support robust habitable conversations between a human and a machine have so far had only limited success.  Meer

The centerpiece of the thesis is the search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations which would indicate a non-zero mixing angle between the first and third neutrino generations (θ13), currently the “holy grail” of neutrino physics.  Meer

This thesis details the significant progress made in improving the performance of organic transistors and the network conductivity of carbon nanotubes.  Meer

Interest in structures with nanometer-length features has significantly increased as experimental techniques for their fabrication have become possible.  Meer

The union of covalent and noncovalent chemistries manifested in the mechanical bond represents one of the great chemical triumphs of the last half century.  Meer

This thesis covers several important topics relevant to our understanding of quark-gluon plasma. It describes measurement of the third-order harmonic flow using two-particle correlations and isolation of flow and non-flow contributions to particle correlations in gold-gold collisions.  Meer

Second-Generation High-Temperature Superconducting Coils and Their Applications for Energy Storage addresses the practical electric power applications of high-temperature superconductors.  Meer

The union of covalent and noncovalent chemistries manifested in the mechanical bond represents one of the great chemical triumphs of the last half century.  Meer

Enhancement cavities are passive optical resonators in which continuous-wave laser radiation or pulses of a frequency comb are coherently overlapped, allowing for a power and intensity scaling of up to several orders of magnitude.  Meer

Air pollution related to the release of industrial toxic gases, represents one of the main concerns of our modern world owing to its detrimental effect on the environment.  Meer

The most massive stars in the galaxy - those with more than 15 to 20 solar masses - are lilkely to ionize their surroundings before they reach their final mass.  Meer

Air pollution related to the release of industrial toxic gases, represents one of the main concerns of our modern world owing to its detrimental effect on the environment.  Meer

This thesis represents the first wide-field photometric and spectroscopic survey of star clusters in the nearby late-spiral galaxy M33. This system is the nearest example of a dwarf spiral galaxy, which may have a unique role in the process of galaxy formation and evolution.  Meer

Proteins act as macromolecular machinery that mediate many diverse biological processes - the molecular mechanisms of this machinery has fascinated biologists for decades.  Meer

Three dimensional (3D) optical geometries are becoming more common in the literature and lexicon of solar cells. Three Dimensional Solar Cells Based on Optical Confinement Geometries describes and reveals the basic operational nuances of 3D photovoltaics using three standard tools: Equivalent Circuit Models, Ray Tracing Optics in the Cavity, and Absorber Spectral Response.  Meer

This thesis presents a significant contribution to decentralized resource allocation problems with strategic agents. The study focused on three classes of problems arising in communication networks.  Meer

High-contrast astronomical imaging has progressed significantly in the past decade. Many of these techniques have been laboratory demonstrated to perform at contrast levels adequate for the detection of Solar System-like planets and dust around nearby stars.  Meer