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
Advancing Biomanufacturing for National Security
Researchers at APL are combining their technical expertise, creativity, and national security acumen to put biomanufacturing to work to make supply chains more secure, strengthen the defense industrial base, and produce materials wherever and whenever.
Learn more about Advancing Biomanufacturing for National Security
Discovering Climate Tipping Points
Artificial intelligence experts and oceanographers are integrating AI with traditional climate modeling methods to enable scientific researchers to better understand climate tipping points, critical thresholds that, once crossed, could “tip” a natural climate system into an entirely different state.
Learn more about Discovering Climate Tipping Points
Enlisting eDNA to Understand Ecosystems
APL researchers are using genetic information to observe animals, plants, and microbes in their natural environments, and pioneering environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis methods to study marine ecosystems that the world relies on as the foundation of global food webs.
Learn more about Enlisting eDNA to Understand Ecosystems
Recent News
News
Nov 26, 2024
Shape-Shifting Antenna Poised to Transform Communications
Johns Hopkins APL researchers have leveraged cutting-edge additive manufacturing techniques and shape memory alloys to create an antenna that can change its shape — and offers a range of potential commercial, military and scientific applications.
News
Nov 19, 2024
Roads to Reservoirs: Expanding the Scope of Global Emissions Tracking
Johns Hopkins APL has expanded its partnership with the Climate TRACE coalition to enhance AI-powered tracking of global greenhouse gas emissions, including new sources like wastewater treatment plants and reservoirs.
Press Release
Nov 19, 2024
Johns Hopkins APL’s Innovative Research Facility Celebrated on the Global Stage
APL’s Building 201 was recognized as runner-up for Lab of the Year by the Scientific Equipment and Furniture Association, which recognizes innovative laboratory design and excellence across the globe.
Press Release
Nov 14, 2024
A New Path to Noninvasive Brain-Computer Interface
A new high-resolution neural recording method developed by Johns Hopkins APL and the School of Medicine detects neural activity through the skull at unprecedented resolutions, expanding possibilities for nonsurgical brain-computer interface.
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.