Cold Regions Engineer Receives Patent for Measuring Change in Sediment Levels

10 Jan. 2007 -- HANOVER, N.H. -- An engineer with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) was recently awarded a U.S. patent for measuring change in sediment levels.

CRREL research electronic engineer Dr. Norbert E. Yankielun has received U.S. Patent #7,141,815 B2, Fiber optic-based probe for use in saltwater and similarly conductive media as found in unenclosed natural environments.

"This instrument measures the dynamic change of level in sediments in tidal or other saline or brackish waters and has potential for application to the monitoring and study of shoreline erosion due to normal tidal processes or storm effects," Yankielun said. "And of more environmental importance is the measurement of loss of shore front and the implications of the loss of wetlands, due to tidal or storm-related erosion or even deposition."

Yankielun has been associated with CRREL for more than 18 years. He is the sole inventor or co-inventor of 27 patents with numerous others in process. Yankielun's patents involve the application of electronics and electromagnetics to solve geophysical and environmental instrumentation, monitoring and measurement problems, especially related to military and civil cold regions challenges.

Yankielun is a graduate of Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering and a resident of Lebanon, N.H.

CRREL is one of the seven laboratories that make up the ERDC. The ERDC is the premier research and development facility for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with more than 2,000 employees, $1.2 billion in facilities, and an annual research program of $700 million. It conducts research in both military and civil works mission areas for the Department of Defense and the nation.

The ERDC is also one of numerous federal agencies supporting research in the Arctic and Antarctic as part of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. The International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization formally established the 2007-2008 Polar Year to fall on the 125th anniversary of the first polar year and the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy identified the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the lead federal agency for coordinating U.S. IPY activities. For more information about federal IPY efforts, please go to www.us-ipy.gov.