Alicia Johnston
Undergraduate researcher makes strides to improve shoe-screening devices for national security
Alicia Johnston loads samples on the gas chromatography instrument that quantifies the amount of explosives in the sample as part of her research as a participant in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Laboratory Visiting Scientist Program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Johnston’s research entails performing solvent extraction in order to remove explosive residue from shoes that are used as mock improvised explosive devices. Click image to enlarge.
Researchers at the Transportation Security Laboratory in Pomona, N.J., are attempting to stay one step ahead of threats posed at security checkpoints by persons concealing improvised explosive devices or IEDs.
Alicia Johnston has spent her summer at the lab performing analytical laboratory work for a project designed to support the implementation of shoe-screening detection technology. Her research experience was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s TSL Visiting Scientist Program, which is managed for DHS by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.
Her project is just one of many at TSL that develops, validates and supports machine- and canine-based techniques for detection of sub-microgram trace amounts of explosives.
The systems are used for IED screenings of persons, luggage, packages and vehicles. Currently, when shoes are screened for explosives at places such as airport security check points, the person must remove their footwear and place it on an X-ray machine.
Shoe-screening detection technology would allow screening to take place without removal of shoes by determining the presence of trace explosives on the outside of the shoe that contains an IED.
Those scanners would likely be implemented by one of several methods:
- Contact sampling, where something physically removes explosive particles from shoes
- Non-contact sampling, where explosive particles are removed from shoes by puffs of air or are detected through optical techniques such as lasers
- Bulk explosive imaging techniques, such as X-ray
For such shoe-scanning technology, it is critical to establish explosive particle and residue standards that are present on the exterior of a shoe containing a bomb, and Johnston is helping generate those standards.
“The most unique thing about this was receiving hands-on experience with trace amounts of explosives and working on a very important project,” Johnston said, who is majoring in chemistry and will be a junior this fall at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
“This project started before I arrived at TSL,” she said. “Since there are so many different explosives, this research will continue after I complete my internship.”
Johnston, who plans to pursue a master’s degree after graduation and eventually be an analytical chemist, said her research is aimed at helping set limits of detection for future shoe-screening devices.
While the TSL has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Richard Stockton College, this is its first collaboration with ORISE.
Dr. Jason Stairs, Johnston’s mentor for the project and a research chemist for TSL, said he foresees a continuing partnership with ORISE.
“This is the first summer that we have run our internship program through ORISE. I want to say that Alicia and the other ORISE interns have been a delight to work with and have proven that our relationship with not only Stockton, but also ORISE, is a successful one.
“Alicia has proven to be a talented chemist who most importantly has the vital characteristics for a good scientist, which are enthusiasm for the subject and eagerness to learn.”