Year: 2016

Southern Research names new members to board of directors

Posted on December 19, 2016

Southern Research announced today that C. Ray Hayes, chancellor of the University of Alabama System, and Nancy E. Dunlap, M.D., Ph.D., an accomplished health care administrator and professional, have joined the non-profit organization’s board of directors.

Both Hayes and Dr. Dunlap have had distinguished careers in leadership roles at organizations committed to advancing science and increasing knowledge, which aligns with Birmingham-based Southern Research’s overall mission.

Hayes became the chancellor of The University of Alabama System on Sept. 1, 2016, placing him in charge of a three-campus system with more than 65,000 students, 37,000 employees, and an annual budget approaching $6 billion. Prior to that, he served as the executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer, overseeing the system’s budgeting and financial affairs.

Hayes’ professional career spans three decades of senior administrative leadership at The University of Alabama System, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M University.

“Southern Research, having recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, has a rich history in Alabama and is currently at the forefront of exciting scientific discovery that is saving lives and helping shape our state’s profile as a global research center,” Hayes said. “As a member of the board of directors, it will be a privilege to work with Dr. Art Tipton and his team to support their efforts. I appreciate this opportunity.”

Dr. Dunlap, a pulmonologist, has had a varied career of more than 30 years of academic clinical practice and teaching, basic investigative research, clinical trials experience, health information technology implementation, quality improvement, and healthcare administration.

Dr. Nancy Dunlap is professor emerita and scholar at UAB's Lister Hill Center for Health Policy. — Dr. Nancy Dunlap

She has served in high-ranking roles at the University of Virginia and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where she is currently professor emerita and scholar at the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy. She also served two stints as physician-in-residence for the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices and spent one year as the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce.

At the University of Virginia, Dr. Dunlap served as dean of the School of Medicine, making her responsible for educational, clinical, and research programs, and later as a professor of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health Services. At UAB, she has held numerous appointments with high levels of responsibility.

“Southern Research has an impressive record of accomplishment in many fields, and its talented scientists and engineers consistently make important contributions both in the laboratory and the real world,” Dr. Dunlap said. “As a member of the organization’s board of directors, I am eager to see this tradition of innovation and discovery continue well into the future.”

“Southern Research has been fortunate to have such an engaged and strong board of directors. I am thrilled that Ray and Nancy will be part of that going forward, and I tremendously look forward to their insight and advice,” said Southern Research President and CEO Arthur J. Tipton.

Southern Research’s board of directors is made up of 10 members, each serving a three-year term.

Current members are Ray L. Watts, M.D., (chair), president of UAB; G. Allen Bolton Jr. (treasurer), vice president for financial affairs and administration at UAB; Mark Crosswhite, president and CEO of Alabama Power Co.; Fournier J. Gale III, senior executive vice president of Regions Financial Corp.; Daniel O. Hayden, independent management consultant and retired senior vice president and general manager, Pharmaceuticals Division, Genzyme Corp., now a Sanofi company; Gene Ruffner Page Jr., president of McWane Inc.; Charles K. Porter, executive vice president, Porter White & Co.; and N. Lee S. Price, Maj. Gen., U.S. Army (retired) and president, Price Solutions LLC.

Drug discovery scientist Mark Suto named to National Academy of Inventors

Posted on December 13, 2016

Mark J. Suto, Ph.D., vice president of Drug Discovery at Southern Research, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in recognition of his wide-ranging contributions to pharmaceutical research and drug discovery efforts.

During a career spanning more than 34 years, Suto has made significant advances in many clinical areas of the drug discovery process, including medicinal and computational chemistry, as well as lead optimization.

Southern Research Suto — Mark Suto directs the Drug Discovery division at Southern Research.

He holds 45 patents in the field of chemistry and drug discovery, along with numerous foreign equivalents. Suto’s patents focusing on ion channels in cells were acquired by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Several compounds from these patents are now in clinical trials.

“Throughout his career, Suto has fostered an international scientific reputation through high-impact publications, service as reviewer and editor for multiple prestigious scientific journals, 45 patents, and research presentations and lectures reflecting his broad expertise across the globe,” said Art Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO of Southern Research.

CLASS OF 2016

Suto is the second NAI Fellow from Southern Research, joining Tipton, who was selected in 2013. Suto was among 175 leaders of academic invention named to NAI Fellow status today, according to an announcement.

NAI is a Tampa, Florida-based organization that recognizes inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and seeks to enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation.

Each year, the NAI selects academic researchers who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation by creating inventions that lead to tangible improvements to quality of life and the welfare of society.

With the election of the 2016 class, there are now 757 NAI Fellows, representing 229 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes. The 2016 Fellows are named inventors on 5,437 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective total held by all NAI Fellows to more than 26,000.

Suto and other new NAI Fellows will be inducted during a ceremony on April 6, 2017, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

“It is exciting to see the NAI Fellows Program continue to grow and honor the world’s most impactful academic inventors each year,” NAI President Paul R. Sanberg said in today’s announcement. “The 2016 Fellows exude innovative excellence and we feel truly privileged to welcome them to the Academy and recognize their remarkable contributions to discovery and invention.”

TARGETING THERAPIES

Suto joined Southern Research as vice president of Drug Discovery in 2011. At the Birmingham-based non-profit organization, he and his team focus on target identification and lead discovery and optimization of novel therapies for cancer, infectious diseases, and neurological diseases and disorders.

He serves as principal investigator on several NIH-funded programs, including the National Cancer Institute’s Chemical Biological Consortium, whose strategic mission is to accelerate the discovery and development of innovative cancer therapies.

Before joining Southern Research, Suto led major scientific and operational projects as an executive at pharmaceutical start-up companies. He also held positions of increasing responsibility in the chemistry department at Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research in Michigan.

NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE taps Southern Research for global independent validation of carbon dioxide utilization technologies

Posted on December 12, 2016

NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE and Southern Research’s Energy & Environment (E&E) division today announced a partnership to help with the independent validation of competing technologies in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE –- a $20 million global competition that incents innovators to transform how the world approaches CO₂ mitigation with the development of groundbreaking technologies that convert carbon dioxide emissions into valuable products.

Southern Research will serve as an independent, unbiased technical evaluator tasked with assessing performance of the competing technologies. In this role, technologists from the organization’s E&E division will visit each of the competing teams and validate each technology’s performance based on the two primary scoring criteria of the competition: how much CO₂ they are able to convert, and the net value of products created with the carbon.

Southern Research XPRIZE — Santosh Gangwal, right, and Tim Hansen of Southern Research’s E&E division discuss research findings.

“Southern Research represents the type of rigor, independence and experience we need in order to properly test the broad diversity of new carbon conversion technologies in this competition,” said NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE Director of Technical Operations Marcius Extavour.

“XPRIZE is an innovation engine that tries to catalyze breakthrough technologies that can address our collective grand challenges,” he added. “Climate change and carbon emissions are in that category, and we know that Southern Research has been at the forefront of technology and standards in this field for decades. We’re excited to bring their expertise to bear.”

“Our team of scientists and engineers have experience in deploying and testing new renewable energy and environmental management technologies in the field. That real world experience, combined with process modeling and analytical capabilities, gives us the ability to judge which technologies are more likely to succeed when commercialized,” said Bill Grieco, vice president of Southern Research’s E&E division.

HISTORICAL EXPERTISE

For over 40 years, the division has been testing, developing and licensing technologies designed to help energy producers and industry manage their environmental footprint. Southern Research specializes in controlling the environmental footprint of processes for energy generation and distribution, water treatment and reuse, and chemicals and fuel manufacturing.

Of particular relevance to the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, E&E manages a task force specifically for independent performance validation and demonstration of energy and related sustainable technologies. This team also strives to predict the economic and life cycle impacts of emerging technologies with techno-economic analyses (TEA) and life cycle assessments (LCA).

This team has also been deeply involved in the development of ISO 14034, an international standard to define how the performance of environmental technologies are evaluated.

“The vast majority of energy consumed in the world will continue to be produced from fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal for the foreseeable future,” said Santosh Gangwal, director of business development, Southern Research’s E&E division. “When combusted, fossil fuels expel CO₂ into the atmosphere, which could contribute to changes in the earth’s climate.

“While there can only be one winner for the Carbon XPRIZE competition, this is important work, and we strongly encourage all competing teams to continue developing these transformative technologies,” he said. “The independent validation provided by Southern Research and XPRIZE is a valuable benefit to all teams.”

XPRIZE competitions assess the contestants’ innovations in three stages: a submission round, a laboratory testing round, and a demonstration round where the contestants’ technologies are examined under real world conditions. The 4½-year NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition will include all three rounds across two tracks — one focused on testing technologies at a coal plant and another that focuses on testing technologies at a natural gas power plant. Each track will operate as a separate competition on the same timeline.

Southern Research will lend its expertise to working closely with the Carbon XPRIZE and its competing teams to help scale these breakthrough technologies in the second stage of the competition in real and tangible ways.

Southern Research celebrates 2016 Excellence Award winners

Posted on December 9, 2016

Southern Research honored winners of its employee Excellence Awards program at a program last week showcasing work across the organization this year that exemplified the non-profit’s core values.

The work of the winners supported Southern Research in wide-ranging ways in 2016, from advancing science and technology to making the organization a safer, more efficient, more productive workplace. In all cases, the winners showed a deep commitment to serving Southern Research, its sponsors and their co-workers.

“Southern Research was founded 75 years ago, and it remains vital today because of the capabilities and dedicate of our talented team,” said Art Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO.

“Our employees come to work every day focusing on making the world a better place in a broad range of technical areas, I’m confident that the organization will continue to celebrate innovation and accomplishment for many generations to come,” he added.

President and CEO Art Tipton, right, presents Tim Ferguson with the President's Award. — President and CEO Art Tipton, right, presents Tim Ferguson with the President’s Award.

At the program, Tipton presented the President’s Award to Tim Ferguson, the leader of the Engineering Division’s Mechanics Department who has exceeded customer expectations with excellent technical solutions for more than a decade.

Tipton commented on Ferguson’s performance leading a profitable, growing department to high standards and demonstrating year-over-year financial growth independent of fluctuations in government or commercial funding.

“I am thrilled to present this award this year to someone nearer the beginning than the end of their career, and I look forward to Tim continuing to be an example of excellence to the entire Southern Research family,” he added.

Receiving Excellence Awards for their work in 2016 were:

The QVOA Team: A group of six scientists worked for a year to validate and standardize the Quantitative Viral Outgrowth Assay (QVOA), an important component of a major contract with the Department of AIDS at the National Institutes of Health, and focused on a cure for HIV/AIDS. The team is Marie Mankowski, Christine Raney, Jiayi Wei, Rebecca Bernbaum, Haley Madeira, and Yury Kuzmichev.

Amy Sands: Playing a dual role as project coordinator and technical supervisor, Sands has been in the lab part time while also acting as a technical mentor to junior biologists and supporting the study directors.

Carrie Evans: As divisional project manager, Evans has developed processes and procedures to more efficiently track progress on a range of technical programs. She also has acted as an intermediary with the Finance Department, a key role with new budgeting and forecasting processes coming online, and one that allows the organization’s key scientists to concentrate more fully on scientific progress.

Helga Alexander: Responsible for Southern Research’s ISO program, Alexander prepared the organization for more rigorous ISO standards through a more robust internal audit process and ensured the implementation of identified process improvements. Southern Research’s recent ISO renewal audit produced no findings.

James Hawbaker: Hawbaker developed an optical strain system based on sophisticated image analysis that enables making non-contact strain measurements at extremely high temperatures.

Kenny Deerman: Since February, Deerman has provided cross-divisional support as a fill-in Selective Catalytic Reduction catalyst sample prep technician for the Energy & Environment (E&E) division, displaying workmanship, quality and productivity in the role.

Dave Stewart: On top of his normal workload, Stewart stepped up to help E&E carry out a successful move from the Southside Birmingham campus to the Oxmoor location in 2016.

Curtis Thompson: Tasked with preparing a proposal for funding from the Department of Energy for a joint project with UAB, Thompson pursued the right collaborative relationships and completed the process flawlessly. The $150,000 DOE award is to develop a continuous water quality monitor.

Amit Goyal: Leading a program in sustainable chemistry and catalyst development in E&E’s Clean Technology Development group in Durham, Goyal won E&E’s single largest funding award from the Department of Energy to develop chemical products from biomass sugar. He also filed six invention disclosures and three patent applications in 2016.

Javier Campos-Gomez: With a vibrant research program in acute and chronic infectious diseases, Campos-Gomez has been awarded funding by both the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) and and the Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance. In addition, the far-reaching implications of his discoveries have been published in a top-tier scientific journal.

Brynne MacCann: With Southern Research marking its 75^th anniversary in 2016, MacCann was instrumental in the launch of a new, multi-faceted philanthropic outreach program.

Jason Quick: A technician adaptable to changes in test plans and customer and engineer requirements, Quick has been able to surpass expectations.

Kim Blatz: Responsible for increasing a culture of safety and environmental awareness at the E&E Durham facility, Blatz clearly demonstrated a core value of the organization.

Curtis Champion: A multi-tasker in E&E’s Facilities Group with a busy schedule, Champion sets an example for the organization of how to communicate with internal customers.

Carlton Green: Responsible for facilities and maintenance at the E&E Durham facility, Green implemented numerous site-wide improvements including a 5 S system to improve workplace efficiency and safety, and the installation of energy efficient lighting for utility savings.

Researchers find clue on how to block biofilm shields of bacterial infections

Posted on December 8, 2016

An investigation by Southern Research biologists reveals for the first time that fatty acids known as oxylipins play a critical role in the formation of the biofilm shield that protects disease-causing bacteria from antibiotics.

A paper explaining this process, “Oxylipins produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa promote biofilm formation and virulence,” appeared Dec. 8 in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Authors are Javier Campos-Gomez, Ph.D., research biologist in Southern Research’s Drug Discovery Division, and Eriel Martinez, Ph.D., a researcher in the Campos-Gomez Laboratory.

Southern Research Campos-Gomez lab — Eriel Martinez, left, and Javier Campos-Gomez at work in the laboratory.

The findings have significant implications for understanding the formation of biofilms of bacterial pathogens with multiple antibiotic resistance mechanisms that are responsible for opportunistic infections in immunocompromised individuals and others, Campos-Gomez said.

“When the bacterium produces the oxylipins, the biofilm is stronger,” he said. “When you remove the capacity of the bacteria to produce oxylipin, it’s unable to make the biofilm, and the host organism is able to better fight off the infection.”

BACTERIAL COLONIES

Oxylipins are common in nature, and have been studied extensively in animals, plants, algae, and fungi, but the biological functions of these oxygenated fatty acids in bacteria have largely remained unexplained.

Campos-Gomez and Martinez studied P. aeruginosa – an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that causes disease in plants and animals – to better understand how oxylipins act to promote the organization of bacterial colonies into a more complex organization known as biofilm, where the bacteria are embedded inside a matrix that protect them from antibiotics.

Their findings show that oxylipin production essentially changes the bacteria from a free-swimming state to what amounts to a fixed state, allowing for the formation of a colony.

The researchers’ in vitro and in vivo (Drosophila flies) studies indicated that this step increased the ability of P. aeruginosa to form biofilms. They also demonstrated that the oxylipins produced by the bacterium promoted virulence in the flies and in lettuce leaves.

“We think oxylipins are signaling molecules that probably trigger other known or unknown pathways responsible for the biofilm production,” Campos-Gomez said.

PATHWAY FOR TREATMENTS

Oxylipin’s central role in promoting bacterial organization and biofilm formation may offer a promising opportunity for new medicines or therapies. The development of an oxylipin blocker could make a formerly antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection once again treatable, Campos-Gomez said.

As a next phase in their research, Campos-Gomez and Martinez plan to use Southern Research’s state-of-the-art high throughput screening facilities and large compound collection to identify agents that could act to block the production of oxylipin in bacteria.

In essence, understanding how bacteria rely on oxylipin production to create biofilms creates a new pathway for treatments that could save lives.

“It’s very difficult to treat these infections because of the biofilm, which acts as a shield against antibiotics and the host defenses, making it impossible for the infected host’s immune system to clear the bacteria from the body,” Campos-Gomez said.

“The host is unable to handle the infection, and it’s often fatal.”

Southern Research influenza program targets broad-spectrum antiviral against flu threats

Posted on December 7, 2016

Southern Research scientists are targeting a specific protein complex in influenza in the search for a new drug to counter a virus that infects more than 3 million people each year and has a history of catastrophic pandemics.

“Influenza remains a big killer,” said Mohammad F. Saeed, Ph.D., a research scientist in Drug Discovery who is directing Southern Research’s program to develop a treatment against the virus.

Southern Research influenza — Southern Research scientists are seeking to develop a drug that’s effective against several influenza strains.

Influenza is blamed in the deaths of between 250,000 and 500,000 people across the globe each year, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., annual flu deaths range from around 3,000 to just under 50,000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates.

Vaccines offer protection against seasonal influenza, but Saeed says there are many reasons to pursue the development of a broad-spectrum antiviral that’s effective against several strains of the virus. That’s the goal of his work, which is funded through a National Institutes of Health grant.

“Let’s say we have a pandemic like we had in 2009 with swine flu — the vaccine wouldn’t work against that because that is a different variety of influenza,” Saeed said. “Every now and then, you see a different strain of influenza entering human population and becoming more prevalent globally because the existing vaccines are ineffective against the new strain. To generate a vaccine for the new variety, it would take six to nine months, or a year.”

Scientists say the 2009 swine flu was a new form of the H1N1 influenza virus that rapidly spread around the globe much like the 1918 pandemic that killed as many as 100 million people, most of them young, healthy adults. The CDC put the death toll from the 2009 swine flu pandemic at 284,000 worldwide.

BIRD FLU DANGERS

In addition, the threat posed by avian influenza underscores the need to develop an effective antiviral treatment as a protective measure, Saeed said.

While bird flu doesn’t typically infect humans, there are no vaccines for these influenza strains. Plus, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has shown a very high mortality rate in cases of human transmission.

“Normally these viruses don’t jump species, from birds to humans, but our biggest concern is what if they acquire mutations in nature so that they can more frequently infect humans?” Saeed said. “That would become a big problem, because these viruses are more pathogenic than the influenza virus we see in human populations.”

With no vaccine available, a highly pathogenic mutated avian influenza virus would likely kill people in greater numbers, and even those otherwise healthy individuals who usually can fight off infection with the seasonal influenza viruses.

“That’s our concern, and that’s why we want to have drugs against influenza viruses,” Saeed said. “In an outbreak, if we don’t have time to get a vaccine in place, we’ll at least have drugs for people who are already infected to save their lives.”

TARGET: POLYMERASE

Researchers have developed drugs that are useful against influenza, but the virus can develop resistance.

For example, amantadine, which disrupts the virus release from infected cells in Type A influenza, and thereby prevents its spread, is no longer recommended for treatment of influenza in the U.S. because of resistance, Saeed said. The CDC says sporadic resistance has been spotted with oseltamivir, the most widely used antiviral flu medication.

“These viruses mutate all the time. That’s the way they work,” Saeed said. “For us, the important point is to target some protein in the virus that doesn’t mutate as frequently.”

The Southern Research team is targeting a protein complex in influenza viruses called polymerase, which plays a central role in viral replication. In recent years, scientists have made breakthroughs in revealing the structure of this protein complex, opening opportunities for sophisticated drug design techniques.

Additionally, the polymerase protein complex is relatively consistent across several influenza virus subtypes, meaning a drug that works against one form of the flu could work against many others.

“Without those proteins, the virus cannot replicate,” Saeed said. “If we can inhibit those proteins, we can stop the virus in its tracks.”

Scientists also believe that because this set of three proteins performs such an essential function to the virus, mutations within the complex should be rare. That means the likelihood of the virus developing resistance to a polymerase-targeted drug should be low.

DRUG DISCOVERY

Southern Research, whose antiviral work started in the 1950s, is well positioned to make advances against influenza.

High Throughput Screening on Zika — Scientist working with assays in Southern Research’s High Throughput Screening lab.

Scientists at the organization’s infectious disease labs in Birmingham and Frederick, Maryland, have studied a wide range of viral threats, from polio and HIV/AIDS to dengue and Zika. It has a vast library of compounds to examine for activity against influenza, and a state-of-the-art high throughput screening facility with dedicated experts to perform that operation at scale.

“We have a compound collect with approximately 500,000 samples available for screening against influenza viruses,” Saeed said. “We start with the seasonal and pandemic strains. Then we’ll test the compounds that show activity against the avian viruses.”

So far, the Southern Research team has tested about 200,000 compounds in the collection, turning up close to 900 “hits,” or agents that showed activity against influenza, Saeed said. Further screening determines whether the agents are acting against the targeted protein complex.

As part of the drug discovery process, Southern Research chemists assist by designing new molecules from the active agents that are better tolerated in the human body and consistently reach the target area in the virus.

“There are multiple subtypes of influenza viruses, so our goal in this program is to find small-molecule drugs that could potentially have activity against many different subtypes,” Saeed said.

“Influenza pandemics have killed millions of people, and in the case of an outbreak of a highly pathogenic influenza virus, there just won’t be time to develop a vaccine,” he added. “We need a drug against this threat.”

Daniel Foundation supports Southern Research with $225,000 gift

Posted on December 6, 2016

The Daniel Foundation of Alabama is supporting Southern Research’s economic development activities with a $225,000 grant, building on the longstanding ties between the two Birmingham organizations.

Southern Research Daniel Foundation — The Daniel Foundation gift will provide a boost to research with an economic development component.

The gift will provide a boost to Southern Research programs and projects that raise the profile of Birmingham and Alabama, enhance their attractiveness for outside investment, and increase the state’s competitiveness in the global economy.

“The Daniel Foundation Trustees realize the unique role Southern Research plays in the economic fabric of our region,” said Charles W. Daniel, the foundation’s chairman. “Their research capacity reaches far beyond our region and introduces new drugs, technology, and methodology to the world.

“The board was pleased to support these efforts in honor of the 75^th anniversary of Southern Research,” he added.

BENEFACTORS

Southern Research’s bonds with the Daniel family stretch back to the early days of the research organization founded in Alabama in 1941.

Charles E. Daniel, a co-founder of the Daniel International Construction Co., served on Southern Research’s board from 1946 to 1959. His brother, R. Hugh Daniel, another co-founder of the family firm, was a board member between 1964 and 1970.

The Daniel construction firm erected several buildings on Southern Research’s campus on Birmingham’s Southside. The Daniel Laboratory on the downtown campus was dedicated to Charles E. Daniel in 1965 with a plaque that called him a “man of vision.”

Southern Research Daniel Lab — The Daniel Foundation and Daniel Construction Co. donated funds for the Daniel Laboratory, which opened in 1965.

Since 1978, the Daniel Foundation has supported Southern Research with donations approaching $1.2 million, counting the new gift. The funding has supported the Cancer Cause and Prevention Laboratory, the Engineering Research Center, and Southern Research’s capital needs.

“Southern Research has a long history of positively influencing economic development in our region, and the Daniel Foundation of Alabama has been a valuable partner in our scientific and engineering endeavors for decades,” said Art Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO.

“The foundation’s latest gift will help power the work of our researchers, who are continuously pursuing leads and making discoveries that add vitality to the region’s economy and enrich lives in Alabama and beyond,” he added.

MAKING CONTRIBUTIONS

Southern Research contributes to Alabama’s strategic economic development growth effort through high-level research, partnerships, talent recruitment, and the commercialization of therapies and technologies.

Its scientists and engineers perform highly skilled technical work that attracts substantial government and commercial research funding from around the world. Agencies within the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and private corporations have all been important sponsors of work conducted at Southern Research.

The organization’s activities with economic development potential include a comprehensive drug discovery program, research into infectious diseases such as the Zika virus, new technology initiatives within the engineering division, exploration of renewable energy storage technologies, and the development of medical devices.

The Daniel Foundation of Alabama is an active member of the state’s philanthropic community, supporting educational, health, humanitarian and cultural activities in Birmingham and throughout Alabama. The foundation has also supported organizations with an economic development and entrepreneurship focus.

Researcher works on international standard for evaluating clean technologies

Posted on December 2, 2016

For almost three years, Southern Research’s Director of Energy & Environment Tim Hansen, P.E., has been working with scientists around the world to formulate an international standard for evaluating new environmental technologies.

Southern Research verification — Southern Research’s Eric Ringler installs measurement equipment for testing and verification of a landfill gas to energy system conducted a few years ago.

Put forth through the International Organization for Standardization in ISO 14034, standard establishes a framework for the verification of testing for innovative, environmentally beneficial products. Every year, global demand for these technologies is growing as companies seek to meet new environmental regulations, achieve sustainability goals, or lower their carbon footprints.

During the development of this standard, Hansen served as the designated U.S. technical expert to the working group for ISO 14034.

In this role, he provided input on the content of the standard, managed input and comments on drafts from the U.S. team, and represented their interests at semiannual international meetings. He also delivered presentations at workshops on the ISO standard that summarized the U.S. perspective on Environmental Technology Verification (ETV).

“ISO 14034 is a new international standard that will establish a framework for how to do high-quality, consistent evaluations and verifications of new, innovative technologies that can impact the environment,” Hansen said.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

By making the evaluations more consistent, manufacturers can prove the reliability of their performance claims, and potential buyers can identify technology that fits their needs and compare it to other products on the market. More consistency in testing allows consumers to have more faith in the results of these tests.

Southern Research Tim Hansen — Tim Hansen is director of Energy & Environment, North Carolina, at Southern Research.

“One of the goals is to make sure that technology evaluations, done under the ISO 14034 standard, are conducted with a certain level of quality,” Hansen said.

Earlier this year, Southern Research participated in a technology evaluation using a draft of the standard in partnership with Environment Canada and Canada’s ETV execution partner, Globe Performance Solutions (GPS). In this test, Southern Research tested an organic Rankine cycle generator provided by Electratherm that uses waste heat from a diesel generator’s exhaust to produce additional electric power.

“GPS used the draft version of the standard to perform the verification of our test results and Electratherm’s energy efficiency performance claim,” Hansen said. “The goal was to utilize the ISO standard and provide feedback to Environment Canada on any issues with the implementation as a case study and learning tool.”

ISO 14034 seeks to ensure rigorous, independent, high-quality evaluations are done by establishing accepted management and testing practices, reporting requirements, and verification principles. Through these evaluations, producers gain independently verified data to use in marketing, and the perceived risk of adopting new technologies is lessened for buyers and investors.

In addition to aiding decisions about technology adoption, these standards can also provide clear information to legislators and regulators about how these technologies work.

For this standard to be put into practice in the U.S., it will need to be adopted by the American National Standards Institute. That process is under way, Hansen said, and should be completed by early 2017.

EVALUATING CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES

Hansen’s work on ISO 14034 is far from his first encounter with Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) research. In fact, Southern Research scientists have been working on ETV since the mid-1990s.

“We were one of the original partners on the EPA’s ETV program,” Hansen said. “The original driver for environmental technology verification (ETV) research was that it’s hard to make decisions on which technologies to use and which are beneficial because there are so many coming out with marketing claims.”

For almost two decades, their work was mainly focused on greenhouse gas mitigation technology. The Southern Research center tested and evaluated more than 40 technologies under this program.

“We’ve continued doing those kinds of test and evaluation programs for a variety of government and commercial customers using similar methodology since then.”

At the time, the EPA’s ETV program and the Southern Research Greenhouse Gas Technology Center were the first of their kind in the world. Other countries began to establish similar programs.

“As those other programs got established, we started looking for ways we could share information or share results of verifications,” Hansen said. “We had to make sure we were all doing it the same way, so one of the approaches was to develop an international standard. The idea was first brought up in the 2000s, and we decided to pursue an ISO standard.”

Going forward, Southern Research is in a unique position.

“We can be a verifier of technology, making sure the evaluation process and test data are verified and up to the ISO 14034 requirements, or we can be the testing body that actually does the testing work and partner with other independent groups that verify our work,” Hansen said.

“The ETV process was really put in place to help people get the information and data on how these technologies perform so they can make decisions about what technologies to implement,” he added. “There are a variety of ways these developments could actually impact the population, the environment, and public health.”

New ISO tool to help cutting-edge green technologies reach markets

Posted on December 1, 2016

ISO has just published a new standard to help companies that are developing innovative environmental technologies reach new markets. ISO 14034:2016, Environmental management – Environmental technology verification (ETV), will provide independent verification of the performance of new environmental technologies by third parties (assessment bodies). This will help manufacturers prove the reliability of performance claims and help technology purchasers identify innovations that suit their needs.

Testing is a key phase for the verification of green technology innovations. With proof of performance credibly assured, innovations can expect an easier market access and/or a larger market share and the technological risk is reduced for technology purchasers.

Benoit Desforges, convener of the working group responsible for the development of ISO 14034, explains why green technologies need to be tested and in what ways the new standard will impact businesses and benefit sustainability. Read the interview below and check out ISO’s announcement here.

Why do green technology innovations need to be tested?

New environmental technologies can make a significant difference in terms of resource and cost savings, but often face serious market obstacles because they are innovations which, by definition, are not yet able to demonstrate a successful track record. ETV aims to change this by providing verified evidence to confirm the performance claim of the environmental technology and differentiate the innovation from other competing technologies.

What does ISO 14034 aim to do?

ISO 14034 reflects an international consensus that standardization of the performance verification process is an effective way of establishing the global credibility of innovative environmentally sound solutions.

The new standard features specific sections on verification principles, accepted testing practices and reporting requirements, to help create parity for technological innovators and encourage greater market acceptance of innovative technologies. This helps build vendor credibility and buyer confidence by providing the marketplace with the assurance that environmental performance claims are valid, credible and supported by high-quality, independent test data.

How can businesses use ETV (ISO 14034) to verify claims?

The global economy requires independent, quality-assured data on the performance of innovative technologies. Business leaders and public organizations must balance the requirements for change and adaptation against the risks of adopting innovative solutions. Equally important, industry and utilities need effective, scalable technologies to improve performance, address emerging regulations and meet stakeholder expectations. Lastly, when going to market, entrepreneurial technology companies need streamlined options to demonstrate and validate their innovative technologies and service offerings.

In what ways will ETV (ISO 14034) be used, and by whom?

As a third-party assessment process, ETV helps technology vendors provide objective and trustful data on the performance of an innovative environmental technology. For technology buyers and investors, ETV is a reliable source of information on which to base purchasing decisions and better manage technology and investment risks. Finally, ETV provides policy makers, regulators and other stakeholders with clear information on the performance achievable by new environmental technologies.

What are some of the benefits of the standard to industry?

ISO 14034 is designed to deliver multiple benefits that enhance confidence in the selection of technologies that demonstrate an environmental added value. Among the benefits are:

• Parity for technology providers in international markets
• Harmonization of the ETV process across international boundaries
• Credible, independent assessment of innovative environmental technologies
• Informed decisions when identifying and selecting suitable technologies
• Achievement of sustainable environmental targets that benefit citizens around the world by promoting technologies that demonstrate environmental added value

ETV paves the way towards technology performance assessments where sustainability and innovation are inextricably linked. Benefits are expected from the international recognition of verifications and the progressive emergence of an eco-innovation marketplace that promotes performance-based competition and the greening of public procurement.

Materials lab dedicated to research pioneer Colt Pears

Posted on November 29, 2016

Southern Research dedicated the materials evaluation facility at its Engineering Center to Coultas “Colt” Pears, an innovator whose pioneering high-temperature materials research aided the nation’s space program and critical defense systems.

Pears, whose inventions included a furnace capable of reaching 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit for testing spacecraft heat shields and rocket nose-tips, and his team made significant contributions to the science of evaluating how materials behave in extreme conditions.

Beginning in the late 1950s, their work established Southern Research as a key center for high-temperature materials analysis for NASA, the Department of Defense and major aerospace companies. Laboratories at Southern Research are still performing these tests today.

Southern Research Colt Pears — The Colt Pears family poses with a portrait of the researcher at a dedication ceremony for the laboratory named for Pears.

“These labs were built, and still operate to this day, around the fundamental principles that Colt Pears instilled in each and every engineer at Southern Research,” said Michael D. Johns, the organization’s vice president of Engineering.

“It is only fitting that the labs are named after him to memorialize his contributions,” he added.

Southern Research leadership participated Monday in a dedication ceremony for the Pears labs at the Engineering Research Center, which Pears himself helped design. Johns escorted Pears family members on a tour of the Birmingham facility, where they witnessed the legacy of his work in materials evaluation.

During the ceremony, Johns unveiled a portrait of Pears, which was flanked by awards from the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame for his contributions to research in the field.

NOVEL TESTING METHODS

Pears joined Southern Research in 1957 after directing coal gasification research for the U.S. Bureau of Mines in West Virginia and heading an underground coal gasification project for Alabama Power Co.

At Southern Research, Pears earned a reputation as a visionary leader in high-temperature materials research. His team of engineers and scientists devised novel methods and processes for understanding how complex advanced materials performed in conditions similar to deep space and fiery atmospheric re-entry.

Pears’ labs made Southern Research one of the few organizations in the world where the thermal and mechanical properties of materials are routinely studied at temperatures reaching into thousands of degrees, according to the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.

Pears’ engineering team made important contributions to NASA’s Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, providing vital data in high-temperature materials characterization, macrostructural modeling, and failure analysis.

The team’s work also extended to automobile engineering, pollution control, and power generation.

CONTINUING LEGACY

Southern Research Colt Pears lab — Engineering VP Michael Johns shows the Pears family testing equipment in the Southern Research lab dedicated to Colt Pears.

In addition, Pears earned individual recognition for advances in the field.

In 1964, the American Society for Testing and Materials recognized his gas-bearing tensile-stress-strain apparatus as the year’s most significant contribution to testing. The technology is still being used today at Southern Research.

The furnace capable of testing materials at record-breaking temperatures earned a spot among Industrial Research magazine’s top 100 inventions in 1963.

Pears was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2006, with the organization citing his role in developing cutting-edge evaluation technologies and techniques that benefited the nation’s space and defense programs. Southern Research has been named to the Engineering Hall of Fame, as has the high-temperature materials facility led by Pears.

Pears served as vice president of Engineering from 1967 until his retirement in 1993, when he was named a Distinguished Engineer and began acting as a consultant to the organization. He died in 2011.

“Mr. Pears’ legacy has continued at Southern Research, and the groundwork that he laid for the Engineering Division has allowed it to be a leader in high-temperature materials research and other areas to this day,” Johns said.

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