Dr. Zbigniew Dreger uses diamond-anvil cells to apply large static pressures to organic crystals. He uses optical techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and impulsive stimulated thermal scattering to investigate changes in solids caused by extreme stress.

Dr. Yogendra Gupta is the Director of the Institute for Shock Physics, a multidisciplinary research organization with an emphasis on shock wave and high pressure research on materials. State-of-the-art computational and experimental facilities are used to investigate phenomena over a significant range of length and time scales.

Dr. Phil Marston performs research in physical acousitcs and optics. One topic is the radiation pressure of high-amplitude sound and its applications to bubble and droplet dynamics and to the dynamics of of fluids in low gravity. The image at right was taken 9 April, 2003, by cosmonaut Nikolas Budarin aboard the ISS in near-zero gravity conditions. It shows an air bubble inside a water droplet on a plant in the "space garden."

Dr. Matt McCluskey investigates semiconductors under large pressures. His group uses infrared spectroscopy combined with diamond-anvil cells to probe defects in semiconductors, and studies the optical changes of semiconductors under shock compression.