Faculty and Student Teams Program

Project Descriptions

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
National Security Directorate

Development of an Integrated Sensor System for Real-time Monitoring of Chemical and Biological Agents in Food and Water

This is a request for a faculty and two students from institutions of higher education. The request is for a faculty and student team to work with Dr. Thomas Thundat and his research associates at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to enhance and to complete an existing homeland security project funded by the Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI).

Project Description

The focus of this project is to develop a low cost, robust sensor system to detect and monitor biological and chemical agents. The project’s objective is to develop a new paradigm for integrated multi-platform “plug and play” sensor systems for detection of biological and chemical agents in food, water, and other complex environments. The new paradigm should result in an integrated multi-platform hybrid sensor system for detection and discrimination of trace levels of a broad spectrum of chemical and biochemical agents in air, water, food, and soils. The proposed sensor system should be realized by integrating optimized, individually-addressable, nanoparticle-functionalized chemical sensors based on microcantilever, surface plasmon resonance, fiber optic, and chemiresistive transduction platforms into hybrid sensor arrays (sensor fusion). The project should result in the detection of organophosphorus chemical nerve agent metabolities, pesticides, and E. coli. bacteria in complex water and liquid food matrices. The project should incorporate designs for reconfigurability of the sensor system for deployment in multiple critical end-user applications. The final sensor system should be self contained, battery operated, compact, portable, wireless communication enabled, and easily deployable, distributed and networked.

The SERRI Contact for the project is:

Programmatic Contact:
Benjamin Thomas, Jr.
thomasbjr@ornl.gov
(865) 574-5438

Technical Contact:
Dr. Thomas Thundat
thundattg@ornl.gov
(865) 574-6201

Applicants’ Responsibilities and Relationship to Project

Applicants will receive support under the Department of Energy Faculty Student Team Research Program (FaST) to work collaboratively with the project research team at the Laboratory for up to 10 weeks during the summer. The exact appointment period in the time frame of June to August will be scheduled by mutual agreement between the host divisions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the successful applicant. Faculty will be expected to identify students from their campuses to participate in the FaST program. The faculty member will provide some mentorship to students during the summer research activities. The faculty and students must participate as a group and serve their appointments concurrently. It is expected that the faculty member and the students become an integral part of the research team working on this project and that opportunities for continued collaboration may be identified.

Qualifications of Ideal Candidate

This is a request for a faculty and two students from institutions of higher education. The faculty should have knowledge of the ORNL structure and the SERRI project. The opportunity for faculty and students to work at ORNL during summer will allow the research team to improve and enhance their research through technical exchange with ORNL research staff and through access to more advanced laboratory equipment to conduct scientific analyses, tests and experiments. They ideal faculty candidate is a chemist and their students should to be advanced undergraduate chemistry majors with GPAs above 3.0.

Support and Financial Commitments

The successful candidate will receive a stipend based on the academic salary, travel expenses to and from the Laboratory, and a housing allowance. Students recommended by the faculty member for participation in the program will receive a stipend of $400/week for each week at the Laboratory, plus a housing allowance, and reimbursement for transportation expenses to and from the ORNL. Funds are provided for this program from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation, from ORNL, and from other sources.

See Financial Information.