Around this time each year, I’m asked these questions: What is the PTT Grants program and what are we really looking for in a good grant application?

It’s true that the Call for Proposals outlines the nuts and bolts for eligibility and applying. Please be sure to read it! But for those who want some insight into the broader view of what makes a successful application, this blog post is for you.

In this episode, Jason Church speaks with Curtis Deselles, an intern with the Materials Research program at NCPTT, discusses the use of eddy currents and eddy current technology in conservation science. Mr. Deselles has built several eddy current analyzers, custom software, and presented on this topic at a non-destructive conference in St. Louis.

NCPTT has been using eddy current technology in preservation and will be bringing this tool to the iPhone platform in 2010. Download Episode 8 as an mp3 or subscribe via iTunes.

NCPTT’s Mary Striegel participated in a National Science Foundation/Andrew Mellon Foundation workshop held to examine and improve the state of science used to study, preserve and protect cultural patrimony.

Forty participants met to identify areas where new research in basic science can provide a foundation for significant improvements in understanding the way art and artifacts were created and how best to preserve them.

Mary Striegel will be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the American Society for Non-destructive Testing, to be held March 17 in St. Louis, Mo.

The topic is the use of eddy currents for identification of metals (ferrous and non-ferrous), measuring the thickness of corrosion, and the recovery of serial numbers and/or images beneath corrosion.

NCPTT is organizing a session on non-destructive testing in historic preservation as part of the American Society for Non-destructive Testing’s meeting on March 17, 2009 in St. Louis.

NCPTT was awarded the Oliver Torrey Fuller Award at the Association of Preservation Technology International (APTI) conference in October.

NCPTT’s held its sixth annual Cemetery Monument Conservation workshop October 7-9, 2008, in New London, Connecticut. Twenty-six registrants participated in a variety of hands-on sessions.

NCPTT has received the PTT grant product “Wooden Artifacts in Cemeteries: A Reference Manual,” submitted by the Historic Preservation Commission; the City of Aspen, Colorado, and Anthony & Associates.

In response to the recent flooding in the Midwest and fires in California, NCPTT’s Sean Clifford and Mary Striegel continue to update the NCPTT web pages on disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

NCPTT and the Department of Veteran Affairs, National Cemetery Administration has released the interim report entitled, Comparative Study of Commercially Available Cleaners for use on Federally-issued Headstones.

The National Preservation Technology and Training Board convened on April 15-16 at NCPTT’s headquarters in Natchitoches, La.

$695 per participant. Topics Will Include: Condition Assessments, Conservation Ethics, Protection, Cleaning, Stone Loss Repairs, Bases and Resetting, Adhesion & Reinforced Repair, Consolidation.

Mary Striegel of NCPTT presented at the 2008 Louisiana Library Association Annual Meeting, held March 4-6 in Shreveport.

2006 NCPTT Grant to Harvard University, “Development of a Rapid Indicator of Biodeterioration of Historic Stone.” Biodeterioration plays an important role in the degradation of stone in historic buildings, monuments, and archeological sites.

NCPTT interns Stace Miller and Bilal Khurshid were acknowledged for their research and professional presentations at NSU’s Annual College of Science and Technology banquet.

2004 NCPTT Grant to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “Lustron On-line.”

The Department of Veteran Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, has entered into a new interagency agreement with NCPTT to continue the evaluation of commercially available cleaners for use on federally-issued headstones.

NCPTT is providing consultation to Arlington National Cemetery on maintenance and repair of the “Tomb of the Unknowns.”

NCPTT recently provided technical assistance to the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport regarding concerns about the condition of several archeological copper objects associated with the Gahagan burials that were excavated in the 1930s.