{"id":43153,"date":"2026-05-27T09:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/?p=43153"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:34:20","slug":"eight-decades-after-wwii-recognition-uf-engineers-still-power-defense-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/research-innovation\/eight-decades-after-wwii-recognition-uf-engineers-still-power-defense-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight decades after WWII recognition, UF engineers still power defense research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list has-light-gray-background-color has-background\">\n<li>UF contributed significantly to the development of the radio proximity fuze during the waning years of WWII\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The fuze is one of a few American technological advances credited with turning the tide of the war\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>National security-focused research and workforce development continue at UF FLARE\u2019s facilities in Gainesville and on the REEF campus at Eglin Air Force Base\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This month marks 80 years since the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance recognized the University of Florida for developing research that helped thwart the Nazis in World War II.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That storied recognition launched a partnership that continues to thrive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With locations on UF\u2019s main campus in Gainesville and a regional campus on Eglin Air Force Base in the Panhandle, Florida Applied Research in Engineering, known as FLARE, now provides real-world \u2014 and highly secure \u2014 research for the Department of Defense, as well as workforce development that includes Gator engineers from the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the program\u2019s roots date back further than 80 years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1943, at the height of the war, University of Florida researchers quietly signed a contract with the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development. Created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the agency administered federal funds to universities and industrial laboratories for military-relevant research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.ufl.edu\/2026\/05\/uf-flare-\/\">Read full story on news.ufl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With locations on UF\u2019s main campus in Gainesville and a regional campus on Eglin Air Force Base in the Panhandle, Florida Applied Research in Engineering, known as FLARE, now provides real-world \u2014 and highly secure \u2014 research for the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":43157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-templates\/single-sidebar-none.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"off","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[49,61,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-headlines","category-research-innovation","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43159,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43153\/revisions\/43159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}