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  • February

    U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) researchers use different graphene concentrations to test graphene’s ability to filter toxins out of water. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    ERDC partners with multiple universities on graphene research

    Researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) have started working with multiple applications for graphene, from graphene-infused asphalt and concrete to water filtration systems.

  • January

    Detection and elimination of munitions are important for both humans and wildlife. Gurtowski explained that his system includes a container with an amine-functionalized chitin (AFC) compound to interact with a water sample. The AFC compound produces a color change correlated with the presence and concentration of munitions. With detection of at least a one part per million (ppm) concentration of NTO, DNAN or TNT, a solid pale-yellow organic nitrogen compound used chiefly as an explosive, the munitions are absorbed by the AFC compound, and a filter captures and removes the environmentally harmful particles.

    Environmental Laboratory patent can eliminate environmentally-harmful munitions

    A multi-faceted compound that not only produces color changes when added to various Military munition concentrations is also capable of absorbing these dangerous participles for removal, thanks to precise processes invented by the Environmental Laboratory (EL) team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).

  • December

    Kasea Price, research technician at The University of Southern Mississippi, deploys an acoustic telemetry receiver to monitor for fish movements around open bottom habitats near Bay of St. Louis. (Photo credit: Alfonso Cohuo, The University of Southern Mississippi)

    ERDC, The University of Southern Mississippi work to re-establish Gulf reefs

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), the University of Kentucky and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) continue work on a three-year collaboration to create oyster reef habitat in the northern Gulf of Mexico for experimental purposes.
  • Wildrice flowers and seeds at one of the research lakes where researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Lab are working to help improve wildrice productivity. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    USACE researchers collaborate with Native American tribes to improve wildrice productivity

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) researchers are working with the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and other Native American tribes to help improve wildrice (Zizania palustris) productivity.

  • September

    Bats can be vectors for diseases, such as rabies, and can therefore be classified as a naturally occurring threat to the Soldier entering a subterranean environment in an overseas military operation. Team members from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center are currently investigating how to develop sensors that would eventually be fitted to unmanned vehicles to detect these naturally occurring threats, which can be subdivided into the macroscopic type, such as bats, arachnids and reptiles, and the microscopic threat agents — or the diseases that the macroscopic species may carry that could spread to people.

    Research project will explore using unmanned systems to detect naturally occurring hazards for the Soldier

    A multidisciplinary team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center-Environmental Laboratory (ERDC-EL) is currently cataloguing the naturally occurring threats that Soldiers encounter in such situations, with the goal of eventually developing an unmanned solution.
  • PFAS Effluent Treatment System (PETS) testing at Hurlburt Field

    ERDC honored with Federal Laboratory Consortium Southeast Regional Excellence in Technology Transfer Award

    A U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory (ERDC-EL) team led by Research Engineer Dr. Victor Medina has been recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Southeast Region for accomplishing outstanding work in the process of transferring federally developed technology.

  • August

    A tube operated in gas proportional mode produces waveforms displayed on an oscilloscope. Subsequently these waveforms were captured with high-speed, analog-to-digital electronics. The instrumentation was used by U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory researchers in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to develop an electronic collimator invention for detecting gamma radiation, a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. The invention enables the warfighter with a detector capable of directional detection without the use of shielding. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    Patented Electronically Collimated Gamma Radiation Detector aids Warfighters

    A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL) will be recognized later this year for an electronic collimator invention that enables the warfighter with a gamma radiation detector capable of directional detection without the use of shielding.         
  • U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center researchers evaluate dredged material from the Houston Ship Channel Expansion Improvement Project with instrumentation in the Environmental Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi, September 2018. The researchers evaluated the material from the 52-mile-long ship channel and modeled its potential environmental impacts using agreed-upon, site-specific modeling parameters in consultation with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

    ERDC researcher’s detective work helps ship channel improvement project stay on track

    A construction effort as massive as the Houston Ship Channel Expansion Improvement Project — designed to accommodate the wider and deeper ships now carrying goods back and forth between Asia and the U.S. — has many regulatory requirements that need to be met.

  • July

    ERDC science helps USACE districts ease time-of-year dredging restrictions

    ERDC science helps USACE districts ease time-of-year dredging restrictions

    It was when he was a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University that Dr. Matt Balazik, a research ecologist with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory, began intensely studying Atlantic sturgeon, its populations now listed as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
  • Harmful algal blooms in the lab

    ERDC partners with Ohio universities to develop solutions for harmful algal bloom problem

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) established cooperative agreements with the Ohio State University (OSU), the University of Toledo (UToledo) and Bowling Green State University (BGSU) to combat freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs).

  • May

    As part of an U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)-University project, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Walla Walla District Biologist Damian Walter is netting flowering rush plants for a feeding study at the ERDC Environmental Laboratory’s greenhouse on the Vicksburg, Mississippi, installation. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Dr. Nathan Harms)

    Aquatic Botany journal features biologist Damian Walter’s ERDC-U project

    U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory Research Biologist Dr. Nathan Harms co-authored a journal article as one of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Walla Walla District Wildlife Biologist Damien Walter’s 2019 ERDC University mentors.

  • April

    A new podcast series tells the stories of how, over the last 10 years, a growing international community of practitioners, scientists, engineers, and researchers across many disciplines and organizations are working together to combine natural and engineering systems to solve problems and diversify infrastructure value by applying the principles and practices of Engineering With Nature®.

    Expanding the Practice of EWN through Landscape Architecture

    VICKSBURG, Miss. – In this episode of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Podcast, Dr. Jeff King, deputy national lead of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) EWN program, discusses how three landscape architects ― Auburn University’s Rob Holmes, University of Pennsylvania’s Sean Burkholder and the University of Virginia’s Brian Davis — have joined forces with EWN to explore innovative solutions to coastal resilience. The group describes their efforts to synthesize the engineering and landscape architecture disciplines and the opportunities and potential for advancing EWN practices. The EWN approach of leveraging natural processes to accomplish the desired engineering outcome while creating environmental and social benefits aligns well with the discipline of landscape architecture in which landscapes are co-designed by humans and natural processes. King and his guests discuss the power of integrating landscape architecture practices into the work Burkholder, Holmes and King are doing with colleagues at the Philadelphia District along the New Jersey coast.
  • Dr. Edith Martinez-Guerra (bottom) and Damarys Acevedo, both U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center-Environmental Laboratory environmental engineers, conduct a virtual meeting with Dr. Farith Diaz, one of the co-founders and co-directors of the Clean Water Science Network (CWSN), an organization dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of developing communities across Latin America by fostering relationships at the local level. Since the start of the fiscal year, the two researchers have been contributing their time and expertise as CWSN mentors to college-aged students.

    Two ERDC researchers give back to Latin American developing communities

    Since the start of the new fiscal year, two environmental engineers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory have contributed their time and expertise as mentors to college-aged students as part of an all-volunteer organization dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of developing communities across Latin America.
  • Dr. Todd Bridges, national lead of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature (EWN) program, opens the virtual international Book Launch Event at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi, April 7, 2021, by welcoming virtual attendees. The event celebrated the release of Engineering With Nature, an Atlas, Volume 2, with the public, and included speakers from a range of U.S. and overseas partner organizations conveying a shared goal for expanding EWN practices globally through collaboration.

    Collaboration a key theme at Engineering With Nature book launch event

    VICKSBURG, Miss. (April 9, 2021) ― The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineering With Nature (EWN) program’s Book Launch Event celebrated the release of Engineering With Nature, an Atlas, Volume 2 with the public, and included speakers conveying a shared goal for expanding EWN practices globally through collaboration, April 7.
  • Alan Kennedy, a research biologist with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory ― along with National Institute of Standards and Technology researcher Elijah Petersen and University of Alberta (Canada) researcher Greg Goss — led a team of 23 international researchers over seven years to develop guidance for the testing of nanomaterials. These standards were accepted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in July 2020.

    Researcher leads development of internationally recognized nanomaterial testing guidance

    In the world of science, established standards of testing make replication of research possible, which aids in the advancement of technologies. Testing standards are vital on even the smallest of scales, and Alan Kennedy, a research biologist with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory, has helped to achieve such standards for nanomaterials on an international stage.

  • March

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineering With Nature Program will hold a virtual Book Launch Event April 7, 2021, from 10-11 a.m. CDT, to celebrate the release of the Engineering With Nature Atlas, Volume 2.

    USACE Engineering With Nature Program announces Atlas Volume 2 Book Launch Event

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program will hold a virtual international Book Launch Event April 7, 2021, from 10-11 a.m. CDT, for the release of the Engineering With Nature Atlas, Volume 2.
  • Construction to restore the southern shoreline of Deer Island, off the coast of Mississippi.

    Expanding Engineering With Nature – What’s New in Season 2

    Dr. Todd Bridges, senior research scientist for environmental science for the U.S. Army and national lead for the Engineering With Nature (EWN) program, kicks off Season 2 of the EWN Podcast by announcing that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Mobile District is joining EWN as its fourth proving ground.
  • Personnel from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and U.S. Geological Survey watch as a 350-ton crane lowers the 105-foot-long weldment, or underwater Acoustic Deterrent System, into the lock approach of Lock 19 near Keokuk, Iowa, Feb. 3, 2021. Laboratory-tested sounds that proved to be irritating to invasive Asian carp will be broadcast underwater from the weldment as part of a study to evaluate fish behavior.

    USGS, ERDC install underwater Asian carp deterrent system successfully

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and partners installed a temporary, experimental underwater Acoustic Deterrent System, or uADS, at Mississippi River Lock 19 between Keokuk, Iowa, and Hamilton, Illinois, Feb. 3. The deployment is part of a study to understand how invasive Asian carp respond to acoustic, or sound, signals.
  • Alan Katzenmeyer, left, and Anna Miller Jordan, right, both got their start at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) participating in an ERDC-sponsored robotics team while students at Warren Central High School in 2004. Sixteen years later, the two hold supervisory branch chief positions in their respective laboratories, and they credit their successful careers to a solid foundation with the robotics program.

    Starting with STEM: ERDC researchers climb from after-school robotics to branch chief

    At Anna Miller Jordan’s very first robotics team practice as a high-school senior in 2005, she was deemed responsible for piloting a robot to shoot balls into a net, once her classmate Alan Katzenmeyer steered the bot down the court toward the goal. Now, 15 years later, Jordan and Katzenmeyer are both still leading teams at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). But today, instead of high-school peers, those teams are made up of scientists, engineers and researchers working to solve some of the nation’s toughest challenges.
  • ERDC researcher uses sound to sustainably deter invasive Asian carp in USGS project

    ERDC researcher uses sound to sustainably deter invasive Asian carp in USGS project

    When Dr. Christa Woodley, a research biologist with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), heard about the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study to control invasive Asian carp through acoustics, she was excited by the possibilities.