June 29, 2011
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Arlington, Va. —ERDC Environmental Laboratory Researcher Dr. Guilherme Lotufo was honored in a Pentagon ceremony that showcased the achievements of engineers and scientists who received awards from the Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) in 2010.
TTCP is an international organization that promotes defense scientific and technical information exchange, program alignment and shared research activities for five nations: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the Honorable Zachery J. Lemnios, and Director for Research Dr. David A. Honey, presided over the ceremony.
Lotufo's team was recognized for significant contributions to collaborative research advancing knowledge and understanding of ecotoxicology of energetic materials and improvements in ecological risk assessment of testing and training ranges at defense installations in TTCP nations. Other team members include Drs. Ronald Checkai, Mark Johnson, Roman G. Kuperman and Michael Simini, all with the U.S. Army, and Dr. Thomas Hawkins, with the U.S. Air Force.
The team developed scientifically-based environmental tolerance values (EVT) and bioaccumulation data for explosives, propellants and related energetic materials. Site managers can use this as a decision-making tool to assess exposure risks at each site, and to ensure management of these facilities as sustainable resources. Using ETVs in the early stages of ecological risk assessment can shorten the list of chemicals of potential concern and allow the risk assessment to focus on a smaller list of onsite contaminants. This results in immediate and significant cost savings, with the potential for additional cost savings at later management stages. Bioaccumulation data can also be used to estimate the risks of food chain transfer of nitramine explosives to wildlife and other higher trophic level receptors at contaminated sites.
Data developed in this project has been made internationally available to TTCP nations with publication of the book "Ecotoxicology of Explosives." Sharing of scientific expertise has led to successful collaborative studies, as evidenced by publication in multiple peer-reviewed journals, technical reports and presentations at national and international professional meetings.