Diving and Life Support Experts Gather for GILS Symposium

Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division
Story by Susan H. Lawson

Date: 11.29.2018
Posted: 12.06.2018 15:17
News ID: 302476

PANAMA CITY, Florida – Personnel from the Diving and Life Support Enterprise and Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division’s (NSWC PCD) Maritime Mission Systems Division supported the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in hosting the Gills-Inspired Life Support (GILS) Workshop in Panama City, Florida in early 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. The workshop also included discussions with divers from the Navy Experimental Diving Unit and Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center.

“We have brought together participants from academia and naval labs making incredible scientific breakthroughs in the fields of chemistry, hyperbaric medicine, comparative physiology, and engineering,” said Dr. Sandra Chapman, ONR undersea medicine warfighter 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 GILS Workshop is the first step in a fascinating initiative that is bringing together fundamental researchers, technical developers, and operational diving experts, to consider an extremely challenging vision,” said Dr. John Camperman, NSWC PCD 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.”