AMARILLO, TEXAS -- One WTAMU professor is helping the department of defense research bio-terrorism. Dr. Emily Hunt received what's called a Young Investigator Award from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Hunt is using nano technology and enlisting the help of undergraduate students in engineering to help with the research. She says the award will provide the funding to create materials that could be used against weapons of mass destruction.

"We're taking the particles and when they're on the nano scale they behaving as antibacterial, um, materials. So we take them, combine then, when we light them or make them explode, then they kill all the bacteria that could be in the air," said Hunt, the Asst. Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Hunt will receive a total of $300,000 for two years to continue the research.