Dive, life support experts’ symposium

PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Personnel from the Diving and Life Support Enterprise and Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City’s (NSWCPC) Maritime Mission Systems division supported the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in hosting the Gills-Inspired Life Support (GILS) Workshop here in October. The group formed new cross-discipline collaborations between leading military, academic, and industry researchers, and captured research topics related to diving physiology and technology. There were some “incredible scientific breakthroughs in the fields of chemistry, hyperbaric medicine, comparative physiology, and engineering,” said Dr. Sandra Chapman, ONR undersea medicine war-fighter performance program manager. “We hope this will enable significant improvements in manned undersea operations and opens doors for enabling enhanced tolerance to hypoxic events in general.” The ultimate vision of GILS is life support by direct oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange with ambient water. The workshop was the first step in an initiative to bring together fundamental researchers, and operational diving experts to consider an extremely challenging vision,” said Dr. John Camperman, NSWCPC diving and life support senior scientist. “Much like putting a human on the moon, GILS pushes hard against traditional boundaries. And much like the lunar effort it will no doubt generate incremental leaps in technology even before the ultimate vision is realized. Being introduced to the diverse research is already generating new ideas.” (Source: Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City 11/29/18)