Shortly after the Lockerbie aircraft terrorist explosion of 1988, Dr. William Bertozzi, professor of physics at MIT, set out to determine the most effective nuclear physics techniques that could be applied to the detection of terrorist threats. Drawing upon his extensive knowledge, he decided on the novel approach of applying the technique of Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence (NRF) to the detection of concealed or illicit materials which he subsequently patented through MIT. Soon after the horros of 9/11, Passport was founded in December 2002 with the express purpose of commercializing NRF technology to solve one of the worlds most pressing security problems, the non-intrusive inspection of cargo containers.With exclusive license sfor two U.S. patents on NRF technology covering all fields of use of NRF technology, from the beginning Passport has been working on the development of its NRF based scanner and demonstrated the applicability of NRF technology for use in the 2-D and 3-D detection and identification of threat materials in realistic cargo. Passport Systems has since developed two cutting-edge product lines: The SmartScan 3D Automated Cargo Inspection System, based on nuclear resonance fluorescence technology, and the SmartShield Networked Radiation Detection System, using advanced data fusion algorithms.
