CCDC Toxicology Researcher

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Chemical Biological Center (CCDC-CBC) serves as the Department of Defense's primary technical organization for non-medical chemical and biological defense capabilities for the U.S. Military. The directorate specializes in engineering, technical and acquisition capabilities that bring solutions from concept to development—through design, prototyping, and experimentation to full-service chemical and biological testing, fielding, training, and sustainment. This research opportunity will be located within the CBC's Engineering Directorate, which supports the U.S. Army and the U.S. Chemical and Biological Defense Program.

The Toxicology and Obscurants Division at CCDC-CBC supports the Chemical and Biological Defense Enterprise by characterizing the toxicity of emerging chemical threats. As an ORISE participant, this opportunity would provide knowledge to you in multiple project areas. The first is in the field of tactical disablement of chemical munitions. One critical step in this project area is determining the products of chemical reactions that destroy the chemical agents. This opportunity will allow you to learn more about using NMR to identify the products of chemical reactions. During your appointment, you will study the uses of NMR in this process, and learn how to use proton, carbon, and phosphorus NMR experiments to analyze complex mixtures and identify the projects. Additionally, you will also learn to use GC-MS to investigate the nature of the volatile components in the reactions. The second project area of investigation involves studies on enzyme aging (dealkylation) of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme in the presence of GD (Soman). Within this project area, you will investigate new approaches to this problem by developing models systems and studying them using NMR spectroscopy.

 

For more information about the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Chemical Biological Center, please visit us at https://www.ecbc.army.mil/about-us/.

An ORISE appointment period can be a short-term (less than 2 weeks), summer (10-12 weeks), or yearlong appointment. This is a short-term 20-week full-time appointment.  Appointments may be extended depending on funding availability, project assignment, program rules, and availability of the participant.  

Participants will receive a stipend to be determined by USACCBC. Stipends are typically based on the participant’s academic standing, discipline, experience, and research facility location. Other benefits may include the following:

The Participant will not enter into an employee/employer relationship with ORISE, ORAU, DOD, or any other office or agency. Instead, the participant will be affiliated with ORISE for the administration of the appointment through the ORISE appointment letter and Terms of Appointment.