CSS has recently acquired a new award working with the University of Pittsburg. As part of this work, a team of CSS employee owners has begun testing samples for Solidification Using a Baffle in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA), a high temperature furnace with temperature and timing control for melting samples to create different materials and alloys. CSS staff will be testing new procedures for processing and integrating University of Pittsburg samples into ampoules (glass vials) placed inside the SUBSA. 

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Woman pours works with chemical with a test kit

Supporting Guam’s Chemical Round Up

Senior chemist working on the CSS contract with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) supported the Guam Lab Chemicals Round Up in March of 2024 and July of 2025. During both mobilizations, START supported EPA’s mission to collect chemical waste items from across the U.S. island territory of Guam for off-island transport and disposal. As a field chemist, CSS employee…

Beakers on a lab counter

An Approach to Assessing Laboratory Space 

CSS employee owners were part of a team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health who developed an approach to evaluating new laboratory space to determine if the space will fit operational needs. This concept, titled The BaseLINE Approach, combines traditional safety processes with additional safety and environmental factors to assess before operations begin.…

Map of Mississippi River Basin showing major contributing rivers.

Supporting the Mississippi River Basin Drought and Water Dashboard Development 

Congratulations to NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) on the launch of the Mississippi River Basin Drought and Water Dashboard. This dashboard provides crucial, timely information to support decision-making for those living and working in the basin, which spans 31 states and 40 percent of the contiguous U.S. The team created the dashboard to…