Mission Area
Research and Exploratory Development
Inventing the Future for APL and Our Nation
The Research and Exploratory Development (RED) Mission Area is Johns Hopkins APL’s research engine. We conduct pioneering research targeting game-changing breakthroughs to benefit national security missions. While each program within the RED Mission Area has a specific research focus, we recognize that innovation often happens at the intersection of technical disciplines. Therefore, we bring together multidisciplinary teams of talented scientists and engineers to tackle difficult challenges and invent the future for APL and our sponsors.
Research Programs
Leadership
Jim Schatz Department Head, Research and Exploratory Development
Learn more about Jim Schatz
Andrew Merkle Mission Area Executive, Research and Exploratory Development
Learn more about Andrew C. MerkleHighlights
Climate Security
Climate change is reshaping nearly every aspect of life on our planet, with significant implications for national security. APL is bringing all of its core competencies to bear on this critical challenge area, exploring strategic opportunities to make the greatest impact on climate change.
Learn more about Climate Security
Eliminating Forever Chemicals
Multiple studies have linked PFAS exposure to harmful health effects in humans and animals, and without a natural way to break them down, the chemicals persist in soil and contaminate the environment — including water. APL scientists are developing several technologies to capture and destroy these “forever chemicals.”
Learn more about Eliminating Forever Chemicals
Revolutionizing Prosthetics
Revolutionizing Prosthetics is an ambitious multiyear program—funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)—to create a neurally controlled artificial limb that will restore near-natural motor and sensory capability to upper-extremity amputee patients.
Learn more about Revolutionizing Prosthetics
Recent News
News
Oct 29, 2024
Johns Hopkins Teams Poised to Create Transformative Technologies
Cheap and plentiful hydrogen harvested from water. Lightning-fast biocomputers running on brain-like substrates. Widely available noninvasive brain scans for early detection of neurological disease. A visual prosthesis in the form of glasses that returns sight to people with previously incurable vision loss. These are the four boundary-pushing proposals funded in this year’s cycle of the SURPASS initiative.
News
Oct 16, 2024
Coordinating Tactical Teams of Autonomous Machines
Johns Hopkins APL researchers have made significant progress toward addressing some of the fundamental challenges that stand in the way of fieldable multirobot teams becoming reality.
News
Oct 15, 2024
Johns Hopkins APL Biomanufacturing Breakthroughs Bolster National Security
APL researchers are developing biological solutions to address some of the most pressing security challenges facing the nation, including supply chain reliance, industrial base improvement and eco-friendly waste removal.
News
Oct 9, 2024
Scientists Fuse Simulations and Machine Learning to Accelerate Novel Additively Manufactured Materials
A new Johns Hopkins APL-led study shows how machine learning can be used to predict the microstructures produced by a widely used additive manufacturing technique. This novel approach promises to dramatically reduce the cost and time of developing materials with tailored physical properties and will soon be implemented on a NASA-funded effort focused on creation of a digital twin.
Press Release
Oct 7, 2024
Johns Hopkins APL Earns Federal Quantum Computing Award to Propel Science Discoveries
A research team led by APL quantum information scientist Gregory Quiroz and partners at five institutions has earned a competitive quantum computing award from the Department of Energy to engineer potentially game-changing open-source software systems to propel scientific discoveries. The award builds on the team’s previous success designing software that combats errors hampering the performance of today’s quantum computers.