A new security technology developed by Georgian researchers uses polarized laser beams to create protective holographic elements for documents and other materials. The cost to produce the protective elements using PHSPD is comparable to currently available technologies.
With support from the U.S. Department of State’s Prevention of Nuclear Smuggling Program, CRDF provided services for a workshop held by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Terrorism Prevention Branch, on March 11-13 in Kiev. The workshop focused on strengthening national legislation and international legal cooperation against nuclear terrorism.
U.S. government agencies sponsored the participation of more than 100 international scientists in the 50th Annual American Biological Safety Association (ABSA) meeting held Oct. 7-10, 2007, in Nashville, Tennessee. Delegates received travel support, translation services during the conference, and onsite conference assistance.
Many Russian institutes collaborating with the U.S. Department of State’s BioIndustry Initiative (BII) program have a limited awareness of the international principles of laboratory animal welfare. Through two BII-funded animal care and use training sessions, CRDF helped the staff of two institutes gain more knowledge in this field.
Furthering a study begun by Armenian scientistsin the 1960's, a new generation of researchers is working to provide cheaper x-ray beams.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Biosecurity Engagement Program, CRDF contracted with the Rotary Club of Manila Foundation in October 2007 to conduct the first of several training sessions that teach participants how to care for and maintain hospital diagnostic equipment.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Biosecurity Engagement Program, CRDF helped a group of seven Pakistani and one Indian scientists to participate in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) 10th International Symposium on Biosafety held in Atlanta, GA between Feb. 9-13.
An international group of scientists traveled to Chicago to attend the 2007 Brucellosis Research Conference (BRC) -- held Dec. 1-2 -- and the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) -- held Dec. 2-4.
Dr. Sergey Lazarev is a lead scientist at Palmira, Ltd., a Vladivostock, Russia company that patented a novel method of recycling plastic wastes into high-quality, low-cost tiles for construction. He knew the concept had merit: raw materials for other ceramic tiles were more costly than the plastics used in his own, and building companies in Russia and the U.S. both need durable, aesthetic materials.
In collaboration with Charles Dunford of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Anatolij Zvenigorodskii and a team of former weapons scientists from the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) were able to obtain parameters for calculating cross-sections of nuclear reactions.
Public health scientists in Kyrgyzstan are increasingly using mapping tools like Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to track infectious diseases such as anthrax and use the resulting data to develop ways to control outbreaks—and they're getting the help they need to use this technology through a consortium that CRDF helped to establish with support from the U.S. Department of State. The Kyrgyzstan Consortium for GIS Excellence (KCGE) has resulted in the establishment of a GIS facility located at the Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture (KSUCTA) in Bishkek.
Responding to global security threats and high demand for anti-terrorism devices, Andrey Kuznetsov and a team of Russian scientists from Khlopin Radium Institute (St. Petersburg) joined Science Applications International Corporation (San Diego, CA) to create a portable detection device.
Tracking bird migration patterns has become the key to predicting the next “strike zone” for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu. CRDF is lending its expertise to this effort on Russia's front lines.
Under the special antiterrorism competition, CRDF funded research grants to minimize the impact of terrorist acts on civilian populations. The majority of proposals to this competition included scientists with former Soviet WMD experience. The following are examples of the types of research awarded:
With support from the U.S. Department of State’s Biosecurity Engagement Program, CRDF provided logistical support for a delegation of eight grantees from Pakistan and the Philippines to attend the Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association (APBA) Conference. The Conference was held in Bangkok, March 25-28, 2008.
With support from the U.S. Department of State’s Biosecurity Engagement Program (BEP), CRDF sponsored a delegation of eight Latin American researchers to attend the Latin American Biosafety and Biosecurity Laboratory Conference. The Conference was held May 13-15, 2008 in Rio de Janeiro.
Under a CRDF grant, former weapons scientists are creating a language 'bridge' to increase international collaboration.
With a CRDF Cooperative Grant Program award, Andrei Filonov of the Russian Academy of Science partnered with Washington State University researcher James Patersen to develop a technique which accelerates biodegradation of organic contaminants into smaller, easier to clean compounds.
The Grant Assistance Program (GAP) is proud to facilitate is the collaborative work between the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in New York, NY and the Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology in Kiev, Ukraine. Since April of 2000, Dr. Catherine Sigal (JDRF) and Dr. Nana Voitenko (Bogomoletz) have been collectively working towards developing treatments for Diabetic Neuropathy, one of the devastating consequences of long-term diabetes.
Spent nuclear fuel from Russian submarines decommissioned under the START Agreement poses a serious global environmental and security threat. In 2003, an environmentally-safe interim storage facility for this spent nuclear fuel was commissioned for full operation at the FGUP “Atomflot” facility in Murmansk, Russia. The project was implemented, with GAP assistance, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of International Affairs with support from the DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory.