Achievements at ECBC Earn 6 Employees FEB Awards

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC), the premier national resource for chemical and biological defense, announced today that the Baltimore Federal Executive Board (FEB) recognized six ECBC employees during its 43rd Excellence in Federal Career Awards program, held May 7 at Martin's West in Baltimore.

The annual event recognizes federal employees for excellence in job performance during the previous year.

"Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for excellence in job performance during 2009 were awarded to 298 Maryland federal employees and military service members in 19 different job excellence categories," said FEB Executive Director Richard Howell.

The following ECBC employees were honored with a Silver award:

Melissa Dixon, a research scientist, won a Silver award in the Rookie Employee of the Year - Technical, Scientific and Program Support category. Dixon was recognized for her research on the development of viral agents to simulate the smallpox virus for decontamination studies, the production of monoclonal antibodies in mice, the development of bioassays for ricin toxin and biological production of hydrogen from renewable resources. Her research generated two technical reports, three presentation abstracts at scientific meetings and one refereed research paper in the International Journal of Microbiology.

ECBC Engineering Technician Bradley R. Ruprecht was honored with a Silver award in the Rookie Employee of the Year - Trades & Crafts category for his success, high energy and enthusiasm in critical prototyping tasks such as the Chem Raven Chemical Detection Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Joint Service Aviation Mask (JSAM), Near Real Time Battle Damage Assessment, Smoke Projectiles and the Army Research Lab (ARL) Advanced Munitions Concepts and Robotics program.

The following ECBC employees were honored with a Bronze award:

Mark Colgan, an electrical engineer, earned a Bronze award in the Outstanding Professional (Non-Supervisory) - Technical, Scientific & Program Support category for his role in the development of the CBRN Unmanned Ground Reconnaissance project, Global Strike and support of the Rapid Equipping Force as well as the major impact he has made on ECBC's mission and support of U.S. troops. He was also recognized for his membership in the Volunteers for Medical Engineering that supports the needs of physically handicapped people and regular participation in tours of the Center for high-level visitors.

Budget Analyst Debbie Terrill was honored with a Bronze award in the Outstanding Professional (Non-Supervisory) – Administrative, Management & Specialist category, for her expertise in financial law, policy and procedures and support on acquisition, budget or fiscal matters. Among her many accomplishments, Terrill managed the entire ECBC Operations Maintenance, Army (OMA) and Army Working Capital Funds budgets, developed the ECBC Program Objective Memorandum and was instrumental in the research and development of ECBC's internal overhead costing system. She also developed specialized business processes and guided the development of automated project financial management tools to effectively manage and execute hundreds of "Urgent Need, Rapid Response" programs.

Michael Trzeciak's work on behalf of the Center's Advanced Design and Manufacturing Team has been instrumental in providing service to several different organizations in support of warfighter needs in both Iraq and Afghanistan. His contributions to projects such as the U.S. Army Buffalo Mine Protected Clearance Vehicle Improved Spork/Claw program and the Department of Defense Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle Integration Kits program helped earn him a Bronze award in the Outstanding Para-Professional (Non-Supervisory) - Technical, Scientific & Program Support – Individual category.

Engineering Technician Richard J. Kreis was honored with a Bronze award in the Outstanding Trades & Crafts Employee (Non-Supervisory) category for his significant contributions to over 30 programs that resulted in tangible products enhancing warfighter and homeland defense readiness, co-inventing three government Patent License Agreements with industry for the highly acclaimed TAC-BIO lightweight, low-cost biological detection system, authoring  a white paper outlining an innovative Rapid Tooling plan for accelerated plastic part development and supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom with several high-profile, rapid response defense programs including the 30-day development of the Buffalo Surrogate Vehicle to support the training of combat units in Improvised Explosive Device defeat missions.

With 28 Boards across the country, FEB members actively promote public service, engage in local civic activities, raise money for various charities and participate in local disaster response training, among other things. The FEB councils are made up of senior federal career executives in cities with a large federal presence. Founded in 1969, the Baltimore-based charter currently covers a geographic region comprised of more than 125 federal agencies and 7 military installations.

For more information about ECBC, visit http://www.ecbc.army.mil/.

ECBC is the Army's principal research and development center for chemical and biological defense technology, engineering and field operations. ECBC has achieved major technological advances for the warfighter and for our national defense, with a long and distinguished history of providing the Armed Forces with quality systems and outstanding customer service. ECBC is a U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command laboratory located at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. For more information about the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, please visit our Web site at http://www.ecbc.army.mil or call (410) 436-7718.

SOURCE U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center