Idaho ‘nose’ explosive detection: Grant helps develop electronic sniffer

University of Idaho researchers are nose-deep in sniffing out explosive vapors thanks to a recent $900,000 three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Defense; the funding supports research into the detection of explosives.

Idaho’s Patrick Hrdlicka, associate professor of bio-organic chemistry, and David McIlroy, professor of physics, will join Vladimir Dobrokhotov, assistant professor of physics at Western Kentucky University, to develop a device that will serve as an electronic sniffer to detect airborne explosive material.

Under the grant, roughly half the funds are shared with Western Kentucky, but Hrdlicka said the grant really is an Idaho success story: Dobrokhotov earned his doctorate from the University of Idaho and worked in Idaho’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program prior to his Kentucky appointment.

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