Located physically in Armstrong County and figuratively at the intersection of science and politics, the Electro Optics Center of Pennsylvania State University has become entangled in a federal investigation into defense and lobbying firms linked to U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown.

While the Electro Optics Center performs ground-breaking work in lasers, optics and crystals for defense applications, critics said it also has become too entangled with congressional appropriations and developed close ties with lobbyists from a defunct firm that is at the center of a federal corruption probe. They complain, too, that the center has not created economic growth that will outlive its prime sponsor, Mr. Murtha.

The center -- commonly known as EOC -- began as an offshoot of Penn State's defense-oriented Applied Research Laboratory but branched out into a semiautonomous operation with a budget in the tens of millions.

Almost all of its funding has come with the support of Mr. Murtha, whose district includes portions of Armstrong County and whose post as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee allows him to target defense funds to projects in his district.

None of the interviews conducted and documents examined by the Post-Gazette suggest illegality on Mr. Murtha's part. Rather, they raise questions about whether the center, touted as an economic engine for Western Pennsylvania, is growing businesses that would remain in the district after Mr. Murtha, who is 76, disappears from the political scene.

Documents from the center, including funding requests, also reflect Mr. Murtha's long-standing efforts to compel firms receiving contracts through his committee to set up shop in his district.

In addition to conducting its own research, the center provides support and technical services to private defense contractors who seek funding through Mr. Murtha's committee. Annually, it sends a list of recommendations to the congressman and his committee on projects it considers worth funding.

A 2006 list of funding requests to Mr. Murtha from the EOC mirrors the congressman's determination to get contractors who receive defense funds through him to do business in his district.

The spreadsheet-style list included a column of notations such as "Jobs in the 12th District." A 2003 list of requests endorsed by EOC included notations about defense contractors, including "Boeing SVS to set up a subsidiary in the 12th," "DRS to set up a subsidiary in the 12th" and "30 percent of the effort to go towards Kuchera, Johnstown, Pa."

Ray Hettche, former head of the Applied Research Lab, said his original concept when spinning off EOC more than a decade ago was a clearinghouse that would solicit proposed technical projects from the U.S. Navy and bid them out to a pre-determined pool of contractors. Mr. Hettche, now retired, said he felt himself forced out from any role with EOC after meeting resistance from private industry partners who wanted to expand from his original vision.

"They sort of corrupted the whole system," said Mr. Hettche. "People started to use it as an earmark mechanism."

He said he warned university officials about the problem but was brushed aside. Eva Pell, senior vice president for research at Penn State, who has oversight on EOC, said she was aware of Mr. Hettche's concerns about the center.

"Let me just say to you that the lab has matured a lot since Ray Hettche retired. Around the time Ray Hettche retired I'd say it was probably going through some growing pains," Ms. Pell said.

As the center grew, said insiders, officials from PMA Group, a lobbying firm with long-standing ties to Mr. Murtha, took a role in helping to steer defense funds to various clients through the EOC. Ten PMA clients received millions in funds in EOC-related projects over the years. One, DRS, has tallied millions, according to one former EOC staffer. Late last year, federal agents searched the offices of PMA in suburban Washington, D.C., as part of a widening investigation into possible corruption.

So well-connected did PMA become with the center that an EOC spreadsheet program prepared to list "stakeholders" to be consulted in long-term planning, included -- along with defense contractors and Penn State -- PMA lobbyist Dan Cunningham, who represented many firms that received millions in defense research funding through the center.

One former member of Congress, Melissa Hart, a Republican who represented the neighboring 4th District, spoke of a widespread perception among potential EOC partners that hiring PMA was necessary to their success.

"A number of companies went to hire PMA later because they thought they'd have a better chance of funding," she said. "I don't think there was a discussion of that in depth. I think it was just an assumption."

In an e-mail dated May 16, 2006, Karl Harris, the center's director, wrote to EOC staff that nLight, a Vancouver, Wash., laser firm, had terminated PMA as its lobbyist and likely would not receive pending research money it sought from the defense budget.

That e-mail referred to an earlier request to EOC by an official from nLight for help in securing funding to test a project through EOC. The firm sought the funds through a "plus-up" -- additional funding to an already budgeted project, usually handled by powerful appropriations members, including Mr. Murtha.

"I told them I would call their representatives [at] PMA group (Steve Veltri and Dan Cunningham) to ask if EOC could be added for applications work to the nLight plus-up request since nLight had not budgeted for it," Mr. Harris wrote. "Of course we learned that nLight had just terminated PMA's contract and so we could not do anything."

His e-mail also expresses worries about "what effect their dropping their contract with PMA will have on the viability [of] two FY07 plus-up requests. I thought PMA submitted them on nLight's behalf?"

Scott Keeney, CEO of nLight, said he hired PMA because of assurances from the lobbying firm that it had influence in the congressional appropriations process.

"They presented themselves as guys that know the various people on the Hill that we need to talk to. It's about opening doors," Mr. Keeney said. "There's a service to be done there. Turns out it was a very expensive service."

Federal disclosure records show that nLight paid PMA $120,000 in 2005 and $40,000 the following year before canceling its contract.

In an interview last week at the center near Freeport, Mr. Harris said he had no recollection of the May 16 e-mail.

"Nor does that even sound like my style," Mr. Harris said.

The e-mails and memos are part of a large number of documents compiled by Mark Shoaf, a former EOC official who resigned following what he described as a dispute over the center's direction and future. Mr. Shoaf said he passed the documents along to a person he declined to identify but said he had asked to intervene with Penn State officials to spur them to act on his concerns about the center's mission. Instead, he said, the documents were turned over to the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Shoaf said he has since been interviewed by a trio of FBI agents who had asked him about both PMA and Kuchera Defense Systems, a Somerset County defense firm that was raided by FBI and IRS agents in January. Kuchera was among the companies with dealings with the EOC.

Mr. Harris declined to discuss Mr. Shoaf or his complaints, citing personnel policy.

Sometimes bitter splits emerged between companies that sought defense contracts and the EOC.

The head of one company, Kelvin G. Lynn, a physicist at Washington State University, said he sought a defense contract through Mr. Murtha's office to develop piezo crystals -- an expensive and unique crystal used in a variety of high-tech electronics.

Mr. Lynn said he and his company, Piezo Partners, were referred to the EOC to seek funding and obtain help in testing his product. He described the experience as a disappointment.

Mr. Lynn's firm later lost its funding and canceled plans to open a facility in Western Pennsylvania. In part, he said, he was caught in the crossfire between EOC and a Saxonburg research firm, II-VI. Mr. Lynn said Piezo had partnered with II-VI, which had equipment necessary to produce the crystals.

"When we started out there was never an EOC involvement. They inserted themselves," Mr. Lynn said. He also said that Mr. Harris urged him to allow the center to handle all outreach to Mr. Murtha.

Mr. Lynn's sense that there was a strong dislike between II-VI and the EOC leadership was borne out in unrelated e-mails by center employees who complained that II-VI officials were difficult to work with.

Ultimately, according to internal e-mails, Mr. Harris reviewed a $2.1 million defense budget line for crystal research and said he had "initiated" with the project's sponsor, Jim Buss, an official from the Office of Naval Research who oversaw the project, "to nominally split the FY04 funds to two competitors (Piezo-Partners and TRS Ceramics)."

Mr. Harris noted a TRS "plan to set up manufacturing in the 12th [Congressional District]."

After learning the funds would be split between his firm and another and sensing that he was being shut out of a project he said he initiated, Mr. Lynn halted Piezo Partners' efforts with EOC.

"I said, 'Look, we can't continue in Pennsylvania anymore,' " he recalled. "We'll try to do it where you're free of this stuff. Because we weren't going to see any more government funds, at least from EOC."

Mr. Harris, asked about the episode, said he believes the EOC was helpful to Piezo and said any division of the funds would have been handled by Mr. Buss.

"My recollection is we support them," Mr. Harris said.

Spokesmen from II-VI did not return calls seeking comment.

Mr. Lynn said he was troubled by the prospects of keeping his firm going, especially given what he saw as a strong dependence by EOC on Mr. Murtha's largesse.

"One of the biggest issues I had with EOC is they're making jobs that aren't going to be around as soon as Murtha steps down," he said.

Mr. Shoaf, the EOC official who resigned, agreed with that assessment.

"It was about creating jobs, and we weren't creating jobs," he said. "We'd had all these years to become self-sufficient and we hadn't."

Mr. Shoaf said he told Mr. Murtha of these concerns during a meeting in late summer 2006 during a break in an annual defense trade show in Kittanning. After that meeting, he said, Mr. Murtha rode from the show to his next meeting with Mr. Cunningham, the PMA lobbyist. Mr. Cunningham did not respond to a reporter's telephone calls and a secretary said his e-mail address was unavailable.

That discussion followed an earlier dispute between Mr. Shoaf and Mr. Harris after Mr. Shoaf apparently triggered an internal audit of EOC spending. Mr. Shoaf had complained of a misapplication of funds from a contract to pay an employee who was working on an unrelated project.

He said Mr. Harris told him that two key EOC players, Dennis Herbert and consultant Charlie Horner, who later left the center to join Mr. Murtha's Washington staff, were angered by the action.

"Karl said Denny Herbert and Charlie Horner said I was no longer in the circle of trust," Mr. Shoaf said. "I said, 'Is that like being voted off the island?' "

For Mr. Shoaf, in fact, it was.

He said he found his responsibilities cut back, his influence diminished and, citing health issues, he eventually left his position at EOC.

Mr. Murtha, in a March interview with the Post-Gazette, said the center has become crucial in defense.

"Those guys really do good work," he said.

As to any PMA access, he added, "No matter how, they had to prove to the committee that these were worthwhile projects."