Award Data

The recent COVID-19 world pandemic demonstrates most effectively the urgent need for near real-time detection of ambient airborne pathogens. It has been demonstrated that electrospray ionization, utilized in many mass spectrometers today, has the unique ability to capture bioaerosols non-destructively out of the air for subsequent interrogation. This proposal leverages on this electrospray capture ...

The standoff detection of potential threats to military personnel is of primary importance to the Department of Defense as a whole. Millimeter wave imagers are one class of sensor systems that have been employed for the detection of a variety of threats including chemical/biological agents, improvised explosive devices, land-mines, and unmanned aerial systems (UASs). More specifically, W-band (75 ...

LIDAR is a powerful tool for the measurement and characterization of aerosols in the atmosphere. In battlefield environments, a wide variety of aerosol constituents and plume types are present. Traditional LIDAR analysis methods aim to characterize plumes in well controlled environments with a minimum of atmospheric clutter. To extend the abilities of plume characterization and identification in c ...

The threat of organophosphate (OP) chemical warfare agents (CWA) to United States military personnel is a persistent problem due to the relative ease of manufacturing chemical threats compared to nuclear and biological agents. Human butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) has been identified as a probable bio-scavenger of OP CWAs that could be used to protect individuals that could be exposed to OP CWAs. The ...

Organophosphorus (OP) toxins and chemical warfare agents (CWA) are active nerve agents posing significant hazard for both soldiers and civilians. Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is a safe and effective bioscavenger that detoxifies OP and CWAs when injected either prophylactically or post-exposure; but a major technical problem has been producing a recombinant form of BChE with acceptable properties f ...

While this solicitation describes the need for better sampling methods and more rugged mass spectrometers to meet this DoD requirement, the topic author agreed to consider our alternative approach, which employs existing DoD Raman spectrometers. The goal of this proposed project (through Phase III) is to develop a Field-Usable Designer Drug Analyzer capable of identifying and quantifying drugs in ...

To address NGA’s requirements, Sonalysts’ team of world-class experts in underwater optical communication proposes development and implementation of the Precision Optical Navigation Transceiver for Undersea Systems (PONTUS). PONTUS will transfer navigation information from an Underwater Navigation Beacon (UNB) to an Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) in an electromagnetic-spectrum-denied (e.g., G ...

Chemical and biological (CB) warfare agents are a serious threat to our soldiers and national security. Different warfare agents and microbes may be delivered using solids (powders, particulates, ice crystals), hydrosols (air borne liquid droplets), or aerosols (air-born particulates). Solids, hydrosols, or aerosols can penetrate, accumulate, and transport through both porous and non-porous surfac ...

A chemical threat agent mode of action is often initiated through a selective interaction with a biological molecule or structure. The agent binding mimics normal cellular processes, but then overruns natural control mechanisms leading to toxic and even lethal effects. The binding may be used as a basis for sensing the agent. By exploiting the native binding mechanism, a sensing element can be des ...

Hyperspectral imaging systems acquire the spatial and spectral information of the image scene simultaneously, and thus find important applications in remote sensing, military surveillance, and target identification. Most contemporary hyperspectral imaging systems operate at UV/VIS/NIR (ultra violet/visible/near infrared) spectrums. However, in many cases, especially in military applications, (hype ...