The stories and articles made it clear to me that chemical propulsion wouldn't do for space travel. A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, and Clarke's writings, made a big impact on me. I was four at the time but somehow knew that this stuff was for me. Clarke was an engineer and predicted many space technologies quite accurately. Most PEPL funds come from NASA and the Air Force.
Industry is also a source, but even industry funds tend to come from the government.
PEPL develops electric propulsion engines and also tests engines of other developers, usually companies like Atlantic Research Corporation, Primex and Hughes. Gallimore stands inside the large Vacuum Tank Facility built by Bendix Corp. in 1961 in preparation for a lunar mission. It achieves a vacuum similar to conditions 120 miles out in space. Bendix gave the facility to the U-M in 1982. Save for vacuum-drying books and documents damaged when the Economics Building burned down 20 years ago, the chamber lay dormant until 1992, when Gallimore established the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Lab.