DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA)

"The DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program will identify and engage rising research stars in junior faculty positions in academia and expose them to Department of Defense (DoD) needs and DARPA's program development process. The YFA program will provide high-impact funding to these rising stars early in their careers in order to develop their research ideas in the context of DoD issues. The long term goal is to develop the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in key disciplines who will focus a significant portion of their career on DoD and National Security issues."  -- Excerpt from the Defense Science Office's award announcement.

Alyosha Molnar received a BS in engineering with highest honors from Swarthmore College in 1997. While attending UC Berkeley's graduate school in 2001, Alyosha received his MSEE in 2003 for his design of an ultra-low power RF transceiver for "Smart Dust" working with Professor Kris Pister. He then joined Frank Werblin's neurobiology lab where he completed his doctoral work (still in electrical engineering), focusing on dissecting the neuronal circuitry of the rabbit retina using a combination of electrophysiology, pharmacology and anatomy. After receiving his PhD in May 2007, Alyosha joined the ECE department at Cornell as an assistant professor where he will continue is interdisciplinary research in integrated circuits and neurobiology.