OHIO UNIVERSITY PROJECT TITLE: STATISTICAL NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND (ALPHA,N) REACTIONS FOR APPLICATIONS PROJECT DESCRIPTION:PROJECT OBJECTIVES ARE AN IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF THE MOST UNCERTAIN INPUT NUCLEAR STRUCTURE STATISTICAL QUANTITIES SUCH AS NUCLEAR LEVEL DENSITIES, GAMMA-STRENGTH FUNCTIONS, AND OPTICAL MODEL POTENTIALS USED IN REACTION CROSS SECTION CALCULATIONS AND IMPROVED NUCLEAR DATA FOR (ALPHA,N) CROSS SECTIONS AT AND BELOW COULOMB BARRIER ENERGIES, WHICH ARE IMPORTANT IN APPLICATIONS. THE GOAL IS TO CONSTRAIN AVAILABLE THEORETICAL MODELS, AND PROVIDE SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICAL CALCULATIONS WHICH ARE NEEDED IN SUCH AREAS AS ASTROPHYSICS, NUCLEAR DATA EVALUATIONS, DIAGNOSTICS OF HIGH-DENSITY PLASMAS, AND NEXT GENERATION REACTOR PHYSICS. THE OTHER OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES, COMPUTER MODELS, TRAIN THE NEXT GENERATION OF NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS, AND INVOLVE THESE SCIENTISTS IN SIMILAR ACTIVITIES AT NNSA NATIONAL LABORATORIES.