“This conference will promote cross-pollination of ideas and strengthen partnerships, leading to new, modernized developments that will keep our warfighters safe in changing battlefields,” said ECBC Director Eric Moore, Ph.D.

Hosted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), CBD S&T provides the opportunity for ECBC’s chemical biological experts to exchange ideas with peers in government laboratories, industry, academia and allied nations.

CBD S&T is the industry’s most prominent chemical biological defense conference, with over a thousand of the world’s top chemical biological researchers gathered in one place. It is an opportunity for experts to compare research methods and results and to collaborate on new research ideas and directions.

“Because of the number of attendees, their level of expertise, and the potential for gaining new information, this is one of the most important conferences on our schedule,” said ECBC Associate Director Adam Seiple. “Our goal is to take what we learn and apply it to our own research to drive advancement in our work. That work translates to stronger support and better protection for the warfighter.”

Pointing to the dozens of presentations prepared by ECBC researchers, Seiple said that the conference would benefit, too, from ECBC’s participation, which can lead to stronger support for the warfighter and new opportunities for the center.

“We’re proud of our team for producing such high quality work,” he said. “We hope our peers learn from our work, we hope we learn from the work of our peers, and we’re confident that it will lead to new projects and new partnerships.”

Greg Peterson, Ph.D., an ECBC research biologist attending the conference, said he looks forward to networking with peers and forging new business relationships.

“We’re able to showcase the work that we do with novel materials to attract other collaborators – both new customers and new partners,” he said. “We usually make several new connections at the event, which sometimes leads to new ideas, new technologies and new programs.”

As warfighters continually face new challenges, ECBC experts continue to research new solutions. This year, researchers have produced findings that will lead to better chemical biological defense in several key focus areas, including novel threat and disruptive chemical and biological discovery, rapid response and recovery, and threat sensing and reporting.

“This is all about keeping the warfighter safe,” said Dan Davis, business manager for ECBC’s research and technology directorate. “Chemical and biological threats are always evolving, and we have to make sure our warfighters are equipped to handle them. Much of our work this year focused on discovering, treating, and preventing chemical biological threats, and our research lays out a strong foundation to build on in that area.”