Congressional leaders, Texas Tech officials and researchers will announce recent test results that demonstrate the effectiveness of a decontamination wipe developed for counterterrorism efforts.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, Lubbock-area congressman Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, and Tech administrators and researchers will be on hand for a news conference at 11 a.m. today in the Merket Alumni Center to highlight the success of national tests on a nonwoven wipe developed, in-part, by researchers at Tech's Institute of Environmental and Human Health.
Ronald Kendall, director of the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Tech, said the material was tested and approved by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the University of California and could be used in commercial and military applications in the near future.
Seshadri Ramkumar, an assistant professor and researcher at TIEHH, said he has worked on the development of the nonwoven fabric that absorbs toxins and can help prevent contact with toxic chemicals used in chemical warfare and terrorism.
Ramkumar said the material is a blend of cotton or polyester and carbon and "has been rated as the best dry-state wipe," according to a previous article in The Daily Toreador.
Kendall said research and development for the nonwoven fabric totaled about $2 million, much of which was provided by grants from the United States Department of Defense.
Tech could receive royalties through the commercial sale of the nonwoven wipes, which were recommended as the top product in the nation by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Kendall said the potential for applications from the newly-developed material is "tremendous all the way from face masks to protective suit liners to filters. It's a platform technology."
In conducting counterterrorism research, Kendall said the TIEHH works with other institutes, departments and colleges at Tech, including the College of Engineering, which is working on a project that could provide a solution to the dangers of improvised explosive devices, one of the biggest threats facing U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In September, the Department of Defense designated about $1.2 million for Tech's Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. National Program for Countermeasures to Biological and Chemical Threats at the TIEHH, a portion of which was designated for the nonwoven fabric project.
In 2007, the Department of Defense awarded Tech's efforts in counterterrorism research with a $4.1 million grant, a portion of which also helped fund the nonwoven fabric research.
Tech's Zumwalt National Program was created in 1998.
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