Guido Verbeck, assistant professor of chemistry, received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Battlefield Forensic Program to develop a forensic tool that could soon make the analysis of evidence faster and more accurate in the wars against drugs and terror.

The tool, known as the nanomanipulator, is a small-scale forensic workstation for use in military field labs that combines the ability to manipulate samples on the nano-scale with mass spectrometry, allowing scientists to collect and analyze chemical samples from within the ridges of a fingerprint using a single device.

The nanomanipulator will replace a larger version of the device Verbeck invented in 2006.