Troy University has received a $3.5 million federal grant that will fund its continued research and development of methods to recycle personal protective equipment (PPE). The National Institute of Standards and Technology has awarded TROY’s Center for Materials and Manufacturing Sciences a $3.5 million grant aimed at combating the growing problem of medical waste.
The three-year grant is the third NIST has awarded to the center, continuing the growth of the CMMS. “The first two NIST grants were to set up the lab, and this one is to fund particular research projects,” said Dr. Govind Menon, Director of TROY’s School of Science and Technology. “We are entering into the academic research phase of the center. This $3.5 million does directly to research projects, and it will include something TROY has never done before — we’re going to have post-doctoral positions, something very typical of research institutions.”
The funding will allow TROY to hire four staff members to focus solely on research. “These are not faculty. They’re here to do research and only research,” Menon said. “Another new thing is we have a full-time lab technician who maintains these millions of dollars worth of instrumentation. We’re really stepping up our game and becoming a full-blown research center.”