Wilfred Owen, a World War I poet, might have liked the work of UVM chemist Chris Landry.

On the front lines in France, Owen wrote the 20th century's defining poem about chemical warfare, describing "froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer," and "incurable sores on innocent tongues..." Later in the war, Owen was horrified when the Germans and then others started attacking with a new weapon, an oily liquid that came to be called mustard gas.

Nearly 90 years later, Landry, an associate professor of chemistry, has received a $360,000 grant from the US Department of Defense to work on a process that could be used on the battlefield to neutralize mustard gas and other chemical-warfare agents.

Landry's award is one of three Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) grants announced March 28 that will provide more than $1.2 million to UVM researchers. Darren Hitt, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Christian Skalka, assistant professor of computer science, also received funding.

"There is an annual competition to make awards for projects that forward the defense mission," notes Judith Van Houten, state director of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, the umbrella organization for the state's DEPSCoR program.

Toxic legacy
Eliminating mustard gas is part of the current US defense mission -- not a relic of bygone war tactics. Iraq deployed mustard gas against its Kurdish minority in the 1980s, and Landry says the gas continues to present a potent threat in the hands of terrorists. Equally urgent, the US's own defunct arsenal of mustard gas must be eliminated under the Chemical Weapons Convention ratified by the Senate in 1997.

"There are these problems with decomposing stockpiles from before 1970," Landry says. "They are sitting around different Army depots in rusting containers." Treaties require the U.S. to dispose of their stores, but the deadlines are unrealistic under the current disposal method: incineration.

Landry's expertise in porous solids, especially silica, may point to a solution to the problems that mustard gas presents both on the battlefield and the storage yard.

"Suppose you're in a forward battle area and you have equipment, like a computer and keyboard, that has been contaminated with mustard gas by a terrorist organization," he says, holding up a thin steel column attached to rubber tubing. Using a fluorinated solvent that doesn't react with the electronics, it would be relatively easy to wash off the toxic agent. But then what do you with the contaminated solvent? Send it through Landry's filter.

Inside the steel tube, a column of porous silica pellets, treated with various metals and metal oxides, catalyze the mustard gas and render it nontoxic. And out the other end comes clean, reusable solvent. A "fire extinguisher's worth" would be enough for many combat situations, Landry believes -- If he can make it simple to use.

With previous DEPSCoR grants, Landry began to look at how this system might work. Now he has set himself the task of refining it to work at room temperature with nothing more than the oxygen available in the air. "What we're doing in my lab is the first stage in the Army's process that goes from basic research up to being ready for use by soldiers," he says. His preliminary data look promising for creating a flexible, practical process for cleaning up the gas.

Computer security and nano-sats
UVM's two other DEPSCoR grant winners are also working on basic research projects that could lead to new security technologies. Computer scientist Christian Skalka is developing mathematically rigorous methods for testing and improving computer software security. Mechanical engineer Darren Hitt continues his work on propulsion for a new generation of tiny satellites that could be used for a range of homeland security, military and scientific applications.

"Vermont was awarded three of the five proposals we're allowed to send to the Department of Defense" says Lillian Gamache, UVM's EPSCoR project manager. "This is fantastic news for the university and the state. Our congressional delegation has been wonderfully helpful. Vermont and Oklahoma, a much bigger state, were the only two of the 17 eligible states to receive three DEPSCoR awards."

EPSCoR, funded by the National Science Foundation, and DEPSCoR, funded by the Department of Defense, limit their competitions to states that receive less grant funding than powerhouses like California and New York. "The idea is to provide more geographic distribution and diversity so that talent in states that are rural or have smaller populations can develop science, math, technology and engineering infrastructure," Van Houten explains. "The nation can benefit from talent and innovations in these jurisdictions."