Explosive Safety and Reaction Modeling Expert: Combustion (Diagnostics, Chemical Analyses, Modeling), Explosives (Decomposition, Detection, Contamination), and Spectroscopy

Expertise

Summary

• Ph.D. Physical Chemist in the industrial, pharmaceutical and academic settings, providing basic research and analytical research and development programs involving analytical instrumentation, chemical kinetics, data analyses, spectroscopy and chromatography.
• Provides profitable, effective and innovative solutions to industrial and academic, chemistry related problems, applying analytical instrumentation, chemical kinetics, data analyses, scientific programming, spectroscopy, and chromatography to providing insight and problem resolution.
• Trained in: GLP, GMP, ISO-14971 Risk Management, and 31 CFR.
• Designed and operated a unique metal particle burn-rate system with real-time particle sizing.
• First combustion synthesis of nano-crystalline silicon carbide powders.
• Modeled the kinetic and thermodynamics of the ionic processes of soot formation.
• Developed correlations of molecular structure and fuel composition to soot production.
• Modeled formation, cooling and vapor phase coating of boron particles produced in a supersonic jet expansion.
• First to measure the room temperature decomposition rates of RDX, BTTN and AP propellant oxidizers using a high sensitivity(ppt), NOx chemiluminescence instrument.

Analytical Techniques

• GC, GC-MS, HPLC, GPC, Langmuir probes, multi-wavelength emission pyrometry, NO/NOx measurements, quantitative analyses, and spot tests.
• Spectroscopy: UV-VIS, IR, Raman, Micro-Raman, Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF), Mass Spectrometry (MS), Ion Mobility and Spectrometry (IMS).

Custom Built Instruments

• Single particle burn-times, micron particle sizing, and soot volume fraction.

Combustion Systems

• Flat-flame burners, combustors, "bombs," and particle flow systems.

Chemical Computations

• Chemical Kinetics (CHEMKIN), thermodynamic equilibrium codes (CEA, ISP), thermophysical properties, and data analysis (statistics, least squares).

Programming Languages

• MATLAB, FORTRAN, Visual BASIC, LabView (basic), and APL.

Lasers

• Dye-lasers, diode lasers, ion lasers, nitrogen lasers, and CO2 lasers.

Electronics

• Oscilloscopes, Lock-Ins, Boxcar Integrators, DAC cards, Equipment Interfacing

Light Detectors

• SIT/ISIT, Photodiodes, CCDs, and Photomultipliers (PMT).

Explosive Trace Detection (ETD) Systems

• Smiths Detection and Morpho (Safran).

Experience

Independent Consultant, Present

• Provides consulting in various industries, (pharmaceutical, government agencies, and research technologies) in new product development, designing and improving systems (GC, QA, GMP, GLP and 31 CFR), with focus to security and medical devices, combustion, explosives safety and detection.

Bellerophon Therapeutics, North Brunswick, NJ, Analytical Chemist, 2014 - 2015

• Developed GC methods (TDU, CIS, Tenax-TA, Twister®)for leachable, extractable compounds found in the plastic wetted parts of a medical device.
• Establish GC-MS methods for the identification and quantitation of compounds in the gas stream flowing through the medical device.
• Within project timeline, validated the method (GLP) to meet FDA submission requirements.

Ikaria Instrument, North Brunswick, NJ, Instrument Integration - Chemistry Consultant, 2013 - 2014

• Accomplished interfacing several transducers (temperature, flow) to PCs - within budget.
• Efficaciously measured reaction products and probed the weaknesses in competitor's nitric oxide delivery system, removing the need for costly litigation.
• Established data communication between several laboratory instruments and PCs for data logging.
• Colorimetric tests, TLC, and FTIR of exhaust gas streams were used to establish reaction route and byproducts.

DSA Detection, North Andover, MA, Trace Explosives Detection Subject Matter Expert, 2012 - 2013

• Developed cost effective swab and verification products for explosive trace detection systems (in DSA detection). Products included: Thumbprint quality control aid, dry verific standards, and improvements to their existing liquid quality control product.
• Products approved by the DHS/TSA for security checkpoints.

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, Senior Research Scientist, 2008 - 2011

• Economically designed, assembled and operated a unique system to measure rates of real-time, micron sized aluminum and titanium particle combustion.
• Cost-effective, powerful diode laser generated Mie scattering to establish size of burning particles. A Coulter Counter was used to establish the particle size distribution to which the Mie results were fit.
• Wrote efficient, fast algorithms for collecting data (LabView) and processing data that were significantly faster (20x's) than native MATLAB functions.
• Developed a NIST traceable protocol to deduce time-resolved (microseconds), burning particle temperatures from narrow band emission profiles collected by four filtered PMTs.
• Designed, built and ran an experimental dual laser apparatus for sizing and burning of individual micron sized metal particles, allowing a correlation between burn time and the particle diameter to be established in different oxidizer environments (O2, H2O, CO2 mixtures in N2).
• Established the gaseous products from burning metal-iodine composite particles in an acetylene-air flame using an Extrel quadrupole mass spectrometer.
• Measured the temperature of burning Al-Iodine composite particles using the "absolute" intensities of NIR-VIS emission bands.

Global System Technologies, Egg Harbor Township, NJ, Research Chemist III, 1998 - 2007

• Established by GC-ECD, GC-MS, and HPLC, the levels of explosive residues on carry-on luggage and clothing after IED builds for certification of ETD instruments.
• Composed and edited Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) for the Trace Group, developing quality control elements of the SOP's.
• QA analyst for certification testing of vendor supplied explosive trace detection systems.
• Efficiently measured the Raman spectra of explosives in contaminated fingerprints imprinted on cloth and other materials. Size distribution of the particles was established by SEM (1000 particles).
• Research and development work involved collecting and cataloging mass spectra of common explosives, developing GC methods for explosives analyses, quantifying explosive residues on clothing and baggage (concealed pipe bombs, under clothing IEDs), improving and quantifying the transfer efficiency of the dry transfer method, developing models of ion chemistry associated with current generation ETD systems (i.e., ion mobility spectrometer based systems), and reviewing, analyzing and cataloging (database) classified contamination studies.

Dezine Healthcare Solutions, East Brunswick, NJ, Computer Programmer, 1997 - 1998

• Created and maintained software for the durable medical equipment (DME) market. Dezine's software tracks inventory, creates patient invoices, bills insurance carriers (Medicare, State Medicaid's and commercial) and creates detailed business summary reports.
• Responsible for creating new software solutions for customers' custom programming needs.
• Added customer added value to DME software by adding functionality for direct billing of insurance claims (Medicare, Medicaid and commercial) for purchased items.

SciTec, Inc., Princeton, NJ, Scientist, 1995 - 1996

• Produced full spectrum (UV-VIS-IR) absolute intensity maps, corrected for atmospheric absorptions, of missile signatures for real-time identification of missile threats (Classified work).
• Spectra were corrected for atmospheric absorption and aerosol scatter, as well as for instrument response factors.

AeroChem Research Laboratories, Princeton, NJ, Physical Chemist, 1981 - 1995

• Discovered the first combustion process for the synthesis of nano-crystalline silicon carbide and silicon carbide/silicon nitride ceramic powders.
• Significantly improved the methane-hydrogen plasma system to prepare diamond-like carbon (DLC) films on silicon and plastic substrates. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of diamond.
• First room temperature measurements of RDX, BTTN and AP decomposition rates for propellants.
• Designed and operated a gel permeation chromatograph to measure effects of propellant decomposition gases on polymer binder molecular weight distributions.
• Developed empirical formulae for predicting soot concentrations from fuel blends (i.e., jet fuels).
• Established the absolute ion concentration profiles in the standard flame (acetylene-oxygen).
• Major contributor (rates and thermodynamic properties) to the Ionic Model of soot formation.
• Proposed, designed and carried out experiments in combustion and high temperature reaction chemistry.
• Supervise laboratory personnel to install apparatus and carry-out routine experiments.
• Manage data collection and perform analyses and interpretation of laboratory data.

Syracuse University, Chemistry Department, Post-Doctorate, 1978 - 1980

• Assemble and utilize an intra-cavity absorption dye laser spectrometer to monitor the real-time production of HCO from the photolysis of acetaldehyde and o-fluoro-benzaldehyde.
• Measure the threshold energy (i.e., longest wavelength of monochromatic light) required to dissociate parent molecules into HCO fragment radicals.

Major Accomplishments

• Project provided consistent targeting of strategic missiles and conserving the supply of battle field weapons. (DTRA)
• First combustion synthesis of nano-crystalline silicon carbide powders for car engines.
• Smoke formation in jet engines controlled through electric fields or ionic additives. Smoke reduced in jet engines.
• The Air Force utilized the mixture rules to forgo $10,000/day engine tests with alternate fuel sources for jet fuels.
• Established a way to process boron for use as a solid rocket fuel. Boron is a nearly ideal fuel for rockets.
• Modeled the kinetic and thermodynamics of the ionic processes of soot formation.
• Developed correlations of molecular structure and fuel composition to soot production.
• Modeled formation, cooling and vapor phase coating of boron particles produced in a supersonic jet expansion.
• First to measure the room temperature decomposition rates of RDX, BTTN and AP propellant oxidizers using a high sensitivity(ppt), NOx chemiluminescence instrument.

Honors & Publications

Credentials

Special Training Courses

• Safety and Handling of Explosives (Several)
• Testing New Explosives for Stability
• Ion-Mobility Spectrometry - Explosive Detection
• Safety in the Chemical Laboratory (Several)
• Safe Handling of Metal and Thermite Powders
• GMP, GLP and 31 CFR

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• American Chemical Society

Publications

• Review of Scientific Instruments
• Combustion and Flame
• Proceedings of the Combustion Institute
• Proceedings of the Materials Research Symposia

Education

• Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
• B.Sc. Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA