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K-State Today

July 1, 2020

U.S. Department of Energy to fund joint project between Manhattan tech company and K-State mechanical and nuclear engineering department

Submitted by Mary Rankin

A team from the Alan Levin Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering has been awarded a subcontract as part of a nearly $1 million, two-year U.S. Department of Energy grant to Radiation Detection Technologies Inc.

The Kansas State University team will be led by Amir Bahadori, assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering, along with co-investigators Walter McNeil, assistant professor, and Douglas McGregor, university distinguished professor, both also from that department.

For the first year of the project, Kansas State University will receive $252,238 from the Department of Energy for work on "X-DSMSND: A Dual-Sided Microstructured Semiconductor Neutron Detector with Integrated Pixel Read-Out." Second-year funding will be based on the team's progress as determined by the federal energy department.

The remainder of the award will go to Radiation Detection Technologies Inc. in Manhattan, where principal investigator will be Steven Bellinger, CEO of the company.

Radiation Detection Technologies Inc. was founded in 2011 out of the Kansas State University SMART Lab in the mechanical and nuclear engineering department. The company focuses on manufacturing quality radiation detectors and detector readout-electronic technologies for use in multiple industries including healthcare, defense and energy.

This award is part of DOE's Small Business Technology Transfer program that supports scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of federal research funds in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy.