PlasmaSol Corporation wins major award from the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism to combat chemical/biological terror threats

Officials of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) announced May 29, 2002, that PlasmaSol Corp. had been selected to receive a major development award for its application to protect against chemical/biological terror attacks. The award consists of a cash component of $875,000, which PlasmaSol will use to integrate its patented plasma technology into a standard HVAC air-filtration system in a model public/federal building. PlasmaSol is a Technogenesis® company incubated at Stevens Institute of Technology.

PlasmaSol is licensed by Stevens to commercialize a technology known as "capillary discharge non-thermal plasma" (CD-NTP), engineered to create fields of energized gas that can bond with and reduce to harmless trace elements other gases or solids, including a number of noxious pollutants, as well as chemical/biological agents.

Prior to 9/11, PlasmaSol had been concentrated on the remediation of common environmental pollutants, such as greenhouse gases, automotive emissions, volatile organic contaminants in soil, and spray-booth emissions.

However, in March 2001 a NASA Phase I Small Business Innovation Research contract enabled PlasmaSol to test its technology against hardy microbes such as Bacillus subtilis - a surrogate for anthrax. The PlasmaSol technology proved to be very effective for sterilization and decontamination of such microbials. A NASA Phase II contract to continue this research was awarded in January 2002.

Also prior to the events of 9/11, in April 2001, PlasmaSol submitted a proposal to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The proposal envisioned the integration of the PlasmaSol technology with standard HVAC air-filtration systems in a model public/federal building.

Kurt Kovach, the CEO and a founding member of PlasmaSol Corp., responded to the award by reflecting on the events of recent months.

"Life for all of us changed on September 11," Kovach said, "as we witnessed the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Each day since, our nation has questioned its vulnerability to chemical and biological warfare. Be assured that the technology to protect our country from such attacks is available. PlasmaSol is able to kill spores very similar to anthrax very effectively, very quickly."

Having successfully tested prototype applications for the destruction of hostile contaminants, PlasmaSol has also received requests from Federal authorities to accelerate development of its systems. Agencies of the Department of Defense, as well as the U.S. Postal Service have shown particular interest in PlasmaSol's technology.

"Our team is determined, now more than ever," says Kovach, "to use our technology and capability in ways that will protect our families, our friends, and our homeland."

"PlasmaSol's technology provides an important solution to safeguarding civilian populations in an unpredictable set of circumstances," says Maj. Gen. Paul J. Glazar (Ret.). "In a world that has seen increased terror attacks committed against innocent bystanders, any technology that decreases or removes the likelihood of terrorist success must be considered valuable and in need of speedy implementation."

Brian K. Houghton, Director of Research for MIPT, says, "This technology would assist our government's preparedness efforts not only by mitigating a biological or chemical attack should it occur, but also by deterring terrorists from attempting such an attack in the first place. It is vital that our national efforts to improve security offer us tools that can head off potential attacks as well as responding effectively to incidents once they take place."

A Short History of PlasmaSol Corporation

In 1999, three graduate students from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., co-founded PlasmaSol: Kurt Kovach (CEO), Seth A. Tropper (EVP & COO) and Richard Crowe (EVP & CTO). The core team was completed recently with the addition of Michael Epstein as CFO.

The company was founded as a business to commercialize the non-thermal plasma technology developed by two Stevens' physics professors, Dr. Erich E. Kunhardt and Dr. Kurt Becker.

The PlasmaSol team conducted a marketability study of the technology's environmental applications and discovered a multi-billion dollar market potential in several areas. Stevens' Technology Ventures Incubator assisted with the initial launch of the company. Dr. George Korfiatis and Dr. Christos Christodoulatos of Stevens' Center for Environmental Engineering are also co-founders and technology advisors.

Over two years, following an initial grant by the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, PlasmaSol has won major contracts for decontaminative applications from the U.S. Army and NASA, and is currently in discussions with several corporate entities. The company has received plentiful press coverage, including pieces in USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, Discover Magazine, and profiles by the Comcast Network and ABC-TV.

For more information about PlasmaSol Corp., please contact Seth A. Tropper, COO, at 201-216-8680; or visit the company's website at www.plasmasol.com.

About the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism

The Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism is dedicated to preventing and reducing terrorism and mitigating its effects.

Originally incorporated, on September 23, 1999, as a non-profit corporation in Oklahoma and recognized as a charitable organization by the Internal Revenue Service, MIPT grew out of the desire of the survivors and families of the Murrah Federal Building bombing of April 19, 1995 to have a living memorial. MIPT honors that desire by endeavoring to prevent other cities from experiencing the kind of tragedy that occurred in Oklahoma City. MIPT held its first major conference on terrorism on April 19, 2000.

MIPT feels a special obligation to first responders - police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and all of the others who are first on the scene in the aftermath of terrorist activity. They sponsor research to discover equipment, training and procedures that might assist them in preventing terrorism and responding to it.

MIPT is currently funded by a special Congressional appropriation that directs them to conduct "research into the social and political causes and effects of terrorism and the development of technologies to counter biological, nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction as well as cyberterrorism..."

To learn more, please visit the Memorial Institute website at www.mipt.org.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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