WVU researcher developing better sensors to spot hazardous materials

Jeremy Dawson, a research assistant professor in the WVU Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, will receive a $749,000 grant from the Defense Intelligence Agency over the next three years for an interdisciplinary project that has important implications for national security.

The Department of Defense is providing a West Virginia University researcher with $749,000 to develop better sensors for detecting chemical, biological and other hazardous materials.

Jeremy Dawson will receive the grant from the department’s Defense Intelligence Agency over the next three years for an interdisciplinary project that has important implications for national security.

Dawson is a research assistant professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in WVU’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources.

The grant will be part of WVNano, an organization that leads WVU’s institution-wide effort to advance and promote interdisciplinary nanoscience and engineering research.

“The overall goal of our research is to develop sensor devices that take advantage of the unique properties of photonic crystals to enable high-sensitivity detection of biological or chemical molecules,” Dawson said. “The small size of these devices will facilitate the development of highly sensitive, compact and portable sensor systems.”

Other key WVU faculty members involved in the project include Xian-An “Andrew” Cao, assistant professor in the Lane Department, and Aaron Timperman, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

Hazardous chemical and biological materials are often identified by attaching a fluorescent chemical compound to the substances of interest to aid in detection.

Dawson and his colleagues are working on developing sensor devices based on photonic crystals, which enhance fluorescence, enabling the detection of extremely small quantities of hazardous materials.

Photonic crystals are created by the careful design and fabrication of nanoscale structural patterns in solid, gel or liquid materials. This pattern, which is essentially an engineered crystal lattice, gives the material unique optical properties.

While initially targeted toward detecting potentially hazardous materials for defense and homeland security, WVU researchers are also looking into other areas where the sensors may also prove useful, such as health sciences and energy.

New engineering firm to offer jobs to displaced Dow workers

Charleston Gazette
2/14/08

By Joe Morris
Staff writer


The research nonprofit MATRIC has started an engineering firm that it says will employ researchers laid off by Dow Chemical Co.

Known formally as the Mid-Atlantic Technology Research and Innovation Center, South Charleston-based MATRIC owns and runs the new firm called Mid-Atlantic Technical Engineering LLC, or MATE, said spokeswoman Mary-Margaret Chandler.

MATE will cater to clients in the chemical, energy, biofuels and aerospace industries, and it will hire more than 50 engineers and support staff this year, said MATRIC president Keith Pauley in a prepared statement.

The new firm intends to recruit heavily the 150 researchers whom Dow said in December it would lay off over two years as part of companywide cuts. MATE will also seek out engineers in all disciplines who want to live in West Virginia but haven't been able to find the right job.

MATE's goal is to become "a major regional engineering firm within the next five years," said Pauley. It will go after the kind of engineering work that MATRIC has had to refer out of West Virginia, he said.

"To date, MATRIC often has to pass our research to out-of-state entities to complete the designs and to work with contractors," he said.

For this reason, MATE typically won't compete head to head with other Kanawha Valley engineering firms, Chandler said.

"Obviously, there are a lot of engineering firms in the Kanawha Valley," she said, "but our target customer would be different. ... There are real opportunities with our current customer base."

MATRIC had been considering an engineering startup for a long time, but the engineering talent that Dow's layoffs will release onto the job market finally made it feasible, Chandler said.

"When you're going to get this excellent pool of people, that avenue just opens up," she said.

MATE will be run as a for-profit business at MATRIC's offices in Building 740 at Dow Technology Park.

Pauley is the chief executive for now, but he will step aside once a leadership team can be assembled, Chandler said. For the time being, Pauley is working with five part-time employees, who are focused on locating customers, she said.

MATRIC will outgrow its offices at Tech park "in the near future," Chandler said, "and we've made Dow aware of that."