Prof. Seth Bank has been awarded a Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) Award for his work on "Optical characterization of semiconductors and metal-semiconductor nanocomposites." The Defense University Research Instrumentation Program supports the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that augments current university capabilities or develops new capabilities to perform cutting-edge defense research and associated graduate student research training.

According to the Department of Defense the DURIP awards "underpin advances in materials and quantum science; computing and networks; electronics and electro optics; neuroscience; fluid dynamics; robotics and autonomous systems; and ocean, environmental, and biological science and engineering."