The end result was the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), dedicated to preventing and reducing terrorism and mitigating its effects. The MIPT serves as the national point of contact and collaborator in creating the nation’s counterterrorism research agenda and in sponsoring research into the social and political causes and effects of terrorism and the development of technologies to counter biological, nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction. Goodbary is on the Institute’s Board of Directors, appointed by Gov. Frank Keating.

With funds allocated from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Institute issued it first national call for proposals in the fall of 2000. Some of those funds will be coming to OSU in a multi-million dollar MIPT grant that paves the way for a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, led by Ken Clinkenbeard, head of OSU veterinary pathobiology, to work on the application of advanced sensor technology to the detection of chemical and biological threats. The talents of researchers from several states and numerous academic disciplines will be pooled to achieve the project goals.

The group consists of Center for Sensors and Sensor Technologies (CSST) collaborators including Clinkenbeard; Nick Kotov, chemistry; and Nomadics, a Stillwater high-tech firm, along with Jim Wicksted, CSST director and department of physics. Other OSU researchers include Rebecca Morton, John Wyckoff, Cyril Clarke, Jerry Malayer and Carey Pope, all from vet med; and Richard Essenberg, microbiology and molecular genetics, as well as representatives from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Also participating are researchers from the University of California at Davis, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Rhode Island. The grant will provide approximately $1 million per year over a 3-year period.

This research group will concentrate on devising technologies to "sense" chemical and bacterial biological warfare agents, allowing interception before they do their damage. They will investigate the marriage of new "sniffer" sensor technologies developed by Nomadics with what is known about biological agents and organo-phosphates.

According to Clinkenbeard, "Nomadics, an instrumentation, software development and sensor technology company here in Stillwater, expressed interest in developing capabilities in the bio-sensing of biological agents. The College of Veterinary Medicine has expertise in working with biological agents involved with naturally occurring disease. So we realized we had some common ground, and we got together and started discussing the things we might do together, and that’s how the ball got rolling. Nomadics has developed similar "sniffer" technology that is highly effective on explosives and land mines. Our job now will be to fit that technology to biological and chemical agents."

Clinkenbeard notes that currently and in the foreseeable future, there is no single detection method able to detect and identify several or most explosives and chemical/biological warfare (CBW) agents; therefore, useful explosives-CBW sensors will require multiple detection and identification modalities to guard against multiple potential threats.

The proposed solution is to employ a single sensor platform modality (AFP) in a microarray format in which individual wells in the microarray are functionalized for particular explosives or CBW agents. By coupling probes specific for each agent to the sensor platform, when a particular CBW agent interacts with a probe, this interaction will transfer the interaction signal to the sensor platform causing the well to fluoresce, and by the location of the fluorescing well in the microarray, the agent(s) involved can be identified.

In the OSU sensor scheme, the particular sensor technology being developed amplifies the target signal to a much greater extent and is more sensitive than those developed by other researchers. In addition, the technology being developed is designed so that the sensor surface can be swept clean at set intervals regenerating the ready state of the sensor thus making it a continuous real-time device, Clinkenbeard stated.

Jim Wicksted, CSST director, explained that the Sensor Center will serve as the conference coordinator for the MIPT project. The CSST will conduct a yearly televideoconference for all participating researchers and interested MIPT and National Institute of Justice personnel.

In promoting biomedical sensing, we have established a strong interaction with the Center for Biomedical Engineering at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and Dr. Nicholas Kotov, assistant professor in the chemistry department at OSU and CSST collaborator, related to the needs for biosensors based on optical and nanoparticle materials. It should be noted that the projects in these areas involve the collaboration of researchers in the fields of biology (microbiology and pathobiology), physics, chemistry and engineering.

As always, the CSST is interested in helping researchers with unique sensing projects and ideas. I plan to visit with many of you this summer to find out about your sensor-related research and how the CSST might be of assistance. As is always the case, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the Center.

Have a great and productive summer!

Jim Wicksted
Director, CSST

In collaboration with NASA-Langley Research Center, Peakheart is involved in characterizing Tm in Lu3Al5O12 (LuAG) in order to determine the energy levels of the Tm in this crystal and by using this data and a quantum mechanical model determine the crystal field parameters of LuAG. According to Peakheart, if we have an idea of what the crystal field parameters are, we can model other rare earth ions in LuAG. This is of interest since the amount of time and cost in the search for efficient laser host materials can be decreased. In addition, the collaborators have shown, at NASA-Langley using Ho:LuAG, that LuAG is a more efficient laser host that its isostructural analog YAG.

Also of interest are the effects of ionizing radiation on the lasing characteristics of the fluoride solid-state laser materials. In this case, the formation of defects related to the excitation/trapping processes is important for systems designed for environments in which ionizing radiation is inherent. Previous studies on the effects of ionizing radiation on solid state laser materials dealt primarily with determining the spectral location and nature of the induced damage. Few studies dealing with the effects ionizing radiation has on the operation of the laser after introduction of induced defects have been conducted. So Peakheart is interested in correlating the effects of radiation-induced defects to the lasing characteristics of these materials and also to determine if there is anything that can be done to make the materials radiation hard.

James Blankemeyer and Mark Rockley, CSST collaborators, as they shared the Frandson Award for Innovative Programming, with the OSU Center for Science Literacy. The award, which is presented by the University Continuing Education Association, recognizes exceptional efforts to promote expanded opportunities and high-quality continuing higher education on behalf of adult learners.

The Stover Group, a Stillwater environmental research lab and CSST collaborator, winner of the 2000 national Tibbets Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration "for its environmental projects, including its automated method of determining toxic compounds in wastewater."

Neil Purdie, professor and chair of the OSU Chemistry Department and CSST collaborator, on being named "Oklahoma Scientist of the Year" by the Oklahoma Academy of Science "for his significant contributions to science in the state and for exemplifying the highest qualities in science education and research."

Three CSST collaborators and SEED fund recipients — Steve McKeever (Physics), Jim Harmon (Microbiology/Physics), and Allen Apblett (Chemistry) — for their research proposals that were selected for funding by 2000 NASA EPSCoR.

• "Ultra-Sensitive THz Time-Domain Spectroscopy," Drs. Dan Grischkowsky & Alan Cheville, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Nick Kotov, Department of Chemistry, proposal submitted to Georgia Institute of Technology as a result of a collaboration begun by the CSST.

• The CSST is a participant in a proposal that was funded by the MIPT, "Networked Terrorism Detection System," a collaborative effort headed by Dr. Kenneth Clinkenbeard, OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. The CSST will serve as the video conference coordinator for the project.

• The CSST is a participant in a multi-university proposal submitted to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International Grant Program, "Optical Coherence Tomography for Glucose Sensing." This is the result of a collaboration established with the Center for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and also involves Nick Kotov, OSU Department of Chemistry.

• The CSST is a collaborator on a proposal submitted to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Collaborative Technology Alliance, "Advanced Sensors," involving participants from CMS Technetronics, Sandia Laboratory, OSU Sensor Center and the OSU Laser & Photonics Center, Penn State, Raytheon, SRI, and ITT.

• The CSST assisted Dr. James Blankemeyer, OSU Microbiology, in establishing collaborations with Nomadics on his fluorescence technique for monitoring pathogenic bacteria. This work is also of interest to the Army and may receive funding from this DoD agency.

• "Exploring the Potential for Perovskite Oxides in Electronics and Photonics," Drs. James A. Misewich & Alec G. Schrott, IBM Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, Co-sponsored by the Center for Laser and Photonics Research, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering & Center for Sensors and Sensor Technologies, March 2001.

• "Nanoparticle Layers for New Sensor Technologies and Materials," Dr. Nick Kotov, OSU Department of Chemistry, February 2001.

• "A Proposed High (>200/C) SOS IC for Quartz Microbalance Transducers," Dr. Chris Hutchens, OSU School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, October 2000.