SUNY Poly professors to use grant funding to create personal protective facemask

MARCY, N.Y. — Three professors from SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) will use SUNY grant funding of more than $8,000 to create a face mask air filter “underpinned by ongoing, collaborative research.”

Iulian Gherasoiu, assistant professor of engineering technology; Harry Efstathiadis, associate professor of nanoengineering; and Michael Fasullo, associate professor of nanobioscience, will use the funding, SUNY Poly said.

Gherasoiu is based at the SUNY Poly campus in Marcy, and Efstathiadis and Fasullo work at the school’s campus in Albany, Steve Ference, director of university communications at SUNY Poly, tells CNYBJ.

The award will enable continued research on the air-filter device designed to inactivate SARS-COV-2 virus particles upon contact using battery-powered technology.

“We are encouraged by the receipt of this award that opens the path for inter-disciplinary collaboration, allowing us to materialize a concept that we hope will contribute to the increased safety of those wearing face coverings and to the mitigation of the challenges posed by the disruption of the critical equipment supply chain,” Gherasoiu said in a statement.

Michael Carpenter, interim dean of the College of Engineering, commended the faculty research team on its efforts to establish a new method to engineer personal protective equipment, so that those who might eventually use the new filter can “better protect themselves — and potentially others — against COVID-19.”