Edgewood, Md. -- Building the next generation of chemical and biological defense solutions is the top priority for the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and that makes developing the next generation of researchers an integral part of ECBC's mission.
As the Army's premier center for non-medical chemical and biological defense research, ECBC plays a key role in developing future generations of scientists who will develop tomorrow's breakthrough chemical and biological defense technologies. It does this through programs, fellowships and post-doctoral opportunities provided by organizations such as the National Research Council and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, known as ORISE.
The NRC conducts the Research Associateship Program with sponsoring federal laboratories and research organizations approved for participation. The ORISE postdoctoral research fellowship program promotes excellence in scientific and technical research for scientists who have completed their Ph.D. by funding these individuals as they pursue research careers in federal laboratories.
ECBC currently offers 29 research opportunities for postdoctoral associates through 19 advisors across the combined NRC and ORISE programs.
Elizabeth Dhummakupt is an NRC program participant who supports ECBC's Research and Technology Directorate's BioDefense Branch.
While access to ECBC's research infrastructure is valuable, Dhummakupt noted, "what has surprised me the most about my postdoctoral experience at ECBC is the number of different people I have been able to interact with -- from researchers in other divisions and branches to different funders. I am being exposed to the whole process of how research is done at ECBC, from pitching ideas and securing funding to building collaborations and seeing work completed with reports and manuscripts."
While the goal these programs is to develop the scientific workforce of tomorrow, the participants are making a difference today in the advancement of technologies to protect the warfighter from chemical and biological threats, according to Augustus Way Fountain, Ph.D., U.S. Army senior research scientist for chemistry. "Postdoctoral researchers are an integral part of the scientific workforce, their innovative contributions to research enable ECBC to continue to support the modernization efforts of the Army," he noted
Brian Hauck supports the Research and Technology Directorate's Detection Spectrometry Branch through the NRC program, and is working on the real-world issue of agent detector false alarms. "The challenge I am trying to address is the reduction of false alarm rates in threat detection technology," Hauck said. "This will help keep warfighters safe from threats by avoiding false negative responses on the battlefield and help prevent wasting resources by avoiding false positive alarms."
In addition to contributing to inventive capabilities in support of the warfighter, ECBC postdoctoral researchers are eligible for stipends, insurance, travel and potential relocation support.
To learn more about the NRC program and opportunities at ECBC visit: http://nrc58.nas.edu/RAPLab10/Opportunity/Program.aspx?LabCode=11&ReturnURL=/RAPLab10/Opportunity/Programs.aspx?LabCode=11. To learn more about the ORISE program visit https://orise.orau.gov/stem/internships-fellowships-research-opportunities/index.html.
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The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to provide innovative research, development and engineering to produce capabilities that provide decisive overmatch to the Army against the complexities of the current and future operating environments in support of the joint warfighter and the nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
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