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The Biosecurity Seminar Series

Spring 2009

Sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation of New York.

All seminars were held at the Carl Icahn building Room 280 from 12:30 to 2:00pm with lunch served.  
 

Any questions, please contact Laura Kahn at lkahn@princeton.edu or 609-258-6763.

February 20, 2009 -  FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations:  Preventing Counterfeit Drugs and Corporate Espionage

Speaker:  George Hughes, Senior Advisor, Counterterrorism and Intelligence, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations

link to view videotape of 2/20/09 seminar

March 6, 2009 - Biosafety, Biosecurity and Biocontainment -- the Rocky Road Ahead

Speaker:  Margaret Race, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Planetary Protection and Risk Communiation
SETI Intitute, Mountain View, CA

link to view videotape of 3/6/09 seminar

March 13, 2009 - Bioterrorism, Counterterrorism, Science and Foreign Policy: Challenges at the Intersection with National Security

Speaker:  Marc Ostfield, PhD, Former Senior Advisor-Bioterrorism, Biodefense, and Health Security, U.S. Department of State, Office of International Health and Biodefense

link to view videotape of 3/13/09 seminar
 

March 27, 2009 - Smallpox Eradication:  What it Taught Us or Did It?"

Speaker:  D.A. Henderson, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine; Resident Scholar at the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; former Dean of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health from 1977 to 1990; Directed WHO global smallpox eradication program 1966-1977

link to view videotape of 3/27/09 seminar
 

April 3, 2009 - The Saga of Anthrax

Speaker:  Victor W. Sidel, MD, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York; Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Weill Medical College, Cornell University; former President of the American Public Health Association, and cofounder and past President, Physicians for Social Responsibility and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985)

link to view videotape of 4/03/09 seminar

April 17, 2009 - Supporting Biosecurity in Countries of the Former Soviet Union

Speaker:  Maureen Ellis, PhD, Senior Biosecurity Advisor, Global Partnership Program-IGX, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada.

(Sorry, no videotape available)

May 1, 2009 - Zoonotic Disease: Minimizing Risk in a Global Society

Speaker:  Kristine Smith, DVM, Assistant Director for Field Programs, Global Health Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society

link to view videotape of 5/1/09 seminar
 

May 8, 2009 - Building International Consensus on Biosecurity - The Experience of the OECD

Speaker:  Michael Oborne, PhD, Director, Multidisciplinary Issues, OECD International Futures Programme

link to view videotape of 5/8/09 seminar


 

2008 & 2007

Sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation of New York

Sorry, videos not available at this time. 

January 15, 2008 - DNA for Peace:  Balancing Biosciences for Development and for Security

Speaker:  Peter Singer, Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto; Co-Director/Senior Scientist, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health

February 20, 2008 - International Health Regulations

Speaker:  Rebecca Katz

March 14, 2008 - Countering Biological Risks

Speaker:  Terence Taylor

March 28, 2008 - To Keep a Genie in its Bottle?  The Risks and Regulation of Synthetic Genomics in the US

Speaker:  Damon Terill 

April 18, 2008 - Between Terrorism and Indifference:  Charting the Future of Biodefense Policy

Speaker:  Jeanne Guillemin

April 22, 2008 - The Global Health Initiative for Biosecurity of the World Health Organization and How to Develop and Strengthen Ethics Programs for Scientists

Speaker:  Peter Folb, Chief Specialist Scientist and Director of South African Medical Research (MRC); Chairman of World Health Organization (WHO) Committee in Vaccine Safety; Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Policy Research, and Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa

September 26, 2008 - Advancing Global Biological Threat Reduction

Speaker:  Kendra Chittenden

October 3, 2008 - Linking Global Surveillance for Human and Animal Diseases:  Progress and Pitfalls

Speaker:  Peter M. Rabinowicz, MD, MPH

October 10, 2008 - From Here to Biosecurity

Speaker:  R. H. Sprinkle

November 21, 2008 - Extensivley Drug Resistant Tuberculosis:  A Global Health and Security Crisis Being Addressed via Lilly Public/Private Partnerships

Speaker:  Gail Cassell

November 30, 2008 - Climate Change and Social Justice

Speaker:  Peter Singer

December 5, 2008 - Crime in a Wheat Field:  Forensic Plant Pathology, A New Discipline to Meet National Needs

Speaker:  Jacque Fletcher

December 12, 2008 - The Risks of Safety

Speaker:  Edward Tenner

November 27, 2007 -  Plague in a Virtual World:  What Real World Biosecurity Can Learn from Warlock Night Elves

Speaker:  Nina Fefferman, PhD, Assistant Research Professor at The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science

December 11, 2007 - Biotechnology Nonproliferation:  US Export Regulations and International Collaboration

Speaker:  Beth Scott, Director, Chemical and Biological Controls Division, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the Department of Commerce

December 18, 2007 - Global Biosecurity:  Challenges and Opportunities, Options for Reducing Natural and Intentional Biological Risks

Speaker:  David Franz, DVM, PhD, Former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases; Vice President and Chief Biological Scientist, Midwest Research Institute

Spring 2007 (February-May)

Sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation of New York

Sorry, videos not available at this time. 

February 9, 2007 - Governance for Biological Threat Reduction: 
A Comprehensive, Interdisciplinary, International Approach
Speakers:  Dr. Gerald L. Epstein, Senior Fellow for Science and Security, Homeland Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Dr. David Heyman, Director and Senior Fellow, Homeland Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
 
February 16, 2007 - The New Arms Race: Making the Case for an International Compact for Infectious Diseases
Speaker:  Dr. Harvey Rubin.  He is the founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response, and has multiple appointments in the Department of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania
 
March 9, 2007- Synthetic Biology and Biological Security
Speaker:  Dr. Drew Endy, Assistant Professor, Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 
March 30, 2007 - The Biological Weapons Threat and Nonproliferation Options:  A Survey of Senior U.S. Decision Makers and Policy Shapers 
Speaker:  Dr. Amy Smithson, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC
 
April 13, 2007 - Emerging Exotic Diseases of Food Producing Animals: Global Implications 
Speaker:  Dr. James A. Roth, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine and the Director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University
 
April 27, 2007 - Defense Against Infectious Diseases and Biological Threats 
Speaker:  Dr. Ken Alibek, Distinguished Professor at George Mason University; President and Chief Scientist of Advanced Biosystems. Formerly Dr. Alibek was First Deputy Director of Biopreparat in the former Soviet Union.  He is the author of “Biohazard:  The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World—Told from the Inside by the Man Who Ran It.”
 
May 4, 2007 - The Weapon Potential of a Microbe and the Select Agents Act 
Speaker:  Dr. Arturo Casadevall, Selma and Jacques Mitrani Professor in Biomedical Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, New York and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Montefiore Medical Center
 
May 11, 2007 - Terror Medicine 
Speaker:  Leonard A. Cole.  He is an adjunct professor of political science at Rutgers University, in Newark, New Jersey.  He is an expert on bioterrorism and is the author of six books including “The Anthrax Letters:  A Medical Detective Story.” (Please note: this lecture will contain highly graphic pictures that have been shown primarily to medical audiences. It should not be attended by the faint-hearted.)
 
May 18, 2007 -Dual-Use Biotechnology Threats in a Post 9/11 World: Synthetic Genomics and Bioterrorism 
Speaker:  Dr. Kathleen Vogel, Assistant Professor of Peace Studies/Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University

2006 & 2005

Helping the Life Sciences Community Contribute to Biodefense Policy Development

A Carnegie Corp. funded research project built around a workshop and seminar series

February 10, 2006 - Preventing Bio-Violence:  The Need for International Legal Action
Speaker:  Dr. Barry Kellman, Professor of International Law; Director, International Weapons Control Center, DePaul University College of Law
 
February 24, 2006 - Assessing Synthetic Genomics:  Applications, Risks and Governance
Speaker:  Dr. Gerald Epstein, Senior Fellow for Science and Security, Homeland Security Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies
 
March 10, 2006 - Biodefense Research:  NIH Role, NIH Management, Oversight of Safety, Oversight of Security and Oversight of Dual-Use Implications
Speaker:  Dr. Richard Ebright, Professor of Chemistry, Rutgers University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory Director, Waksman Institute of Microbiology
 
March 17, 2006 - Codes of Ethics and Whistleblowers in Biodefense Research
Speaker:  Dr. Nancy Connell, Professor and Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
 
March 24, 2006 - The Life Sciences, Biosecurity and Dual-Use Research
Speakers:  Dr. Malcolm Dando, University of Bradford, UK and Brian Rappert, University of Exeter
  
March 31, 2006 - Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons
Speaker:  Dr. Alan Pearson, Global Security Science and Technology Fellow, Department of Homeland Security
 
April 21, 2006 - Managing the Dual-Use Dilemma:  Lessons from the International Oversight of Smallpox Virus Research
Speaker:  Dr. Jonathan Tucker, Senior Fellow, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
 
April 28, 2006 - Proposed International Regimes for Regulating Biotechnology Research
Speaker:  Dr. Christopher Chyba, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Policy, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
 
May 12, 2006 - Science, Policy and National Security: Addressing the Threat of Bioterrorism
Speaker:  Dr. Scott Steele, Senior Policy Specialist, Counterterrorism Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation
 
May 26, 2006 - Terrorist Speech and the Future of Free Expression
Speaker:  Dr. Laura Donohue, Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
 
October 6, 2006 - BSL4 Research in the 21st Century
 
Speaker:  Dr. Stanley Lemon
 
October 13, 2006 - Assessing the Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism Threat
 
Speaker:   Dr. Litenberg 
 
October 20, 2006 - The Debate Over the Role of the Biological Weapons Convention in Today's Biodefense Equation
 
Speaker:  Ambassador Donald A. Mahley
 
October 27, 2006 - Integration of Former Soviet Biowarfare into the International Research into the International Community:  Success or Failure?
 
Speaker:  Jens Kuhn
 
December 1, 2006 - The Dual-Use Research Issue
 
Speaker:  Dennis Kasper
 
December 8, 2006 - Pathogen Surveillance and Discovery

Speaker:  Dr. W. Ian Lipkin
 
December 15, 2006 - Bio Lecture
 
Speaker:  David Bernstein
 
December 2, 2005 - Bioscience Oversight:  Where are We and Where Should We Go? 
Speakers:  Mary Groesch, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of the Director, National
Institutes of Health; Michael Imperiale, Chair, University of Michigan Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC); Elisa D. Harris, Director, Controlling Dangerous Pathogens Project, University of Maryland and
Edward Hammond, Director, Sunshine Project.
 
Panelists:  Nancy Connell, Chair, UMDNJ Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC); Lynn Enquist, Chair, Princeton University IBC; and Mathew Finucane, Director, Environmental Health and Radiation Safety, University of Pennsylvania
 
 

2004 & 2003

The Biodefense Challenge:
How Should the Life-Science Research Community Respond?
A Carnegie Corp. funded research project built around a workshop and seminar series
 
 
Opening Workshop: The Federal Biodefense R&D Agenda
 
Sept. 7, 2003 
Speaker:  Lawrence Altman, medical correspondent, New York Times,  “What Have We Learned From SARS?”
 
Sept. 8, 2003
Moderator:  Tom Shenk, Chair, Dept. of Molecular Biology, Princeton University and President, ASM
 
Speakers:  Mary Lerchen, Acting Director, Office of Extramural Research, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Deborah Katz, Deputy Director, Office of Biodefense Research Applications, National Institutes of Health and John Skvorak, Director, Medical Chemical & Biological Defense Research Program, Department of Defense 
 
 
Oct. 10, 2003 - The U.S. Government’s Response to Bioterrorism:  Implications for the Life-sciences
Chair:  Lynn Enquist, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University 
 
Speaker:  David Franz, Vice President, Chemical and Biological Defense Division, Southern Research Institute
 
October 24, 2003 - Secrecy and Transparency in Research and Publication in the Biological Sciences
Chair:  Frank von Hippel, Professor of Public and International Affairs and Co-Director, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University
 
Speakers:  John Steinbruner, Director, Controlling Dangerous Pathogens Project, Center for International and Security Studies, University of Maryland and Lynn Enquist, Editor, Journal of Virology, and Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University
 
November 21, 2003 - Defense Against Biological Weapons:  Can Immunization and Secondary Prevention Succeed?
Chair:  Laura Kahn, MD, Research Scientist, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University
 
Speaker:  Victor Sidel, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical
Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
 
December 5, 2003 - The Role for International Transparency in Biodefense R&D
Chair:  Jonathan B. Tucker, Senior Researcher, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
 
Speaker:  Mark Wheelis, Professor of Microbiology, University of California Davis
 
February 13, 2004 - Strengthening the BWC:  Lessons Learned from the Failed Attempt to Agree on a Verification Protocol:  Where Next?
Chair:  Frank von Hippel, Professor of Public and International Affairs and Co-Director, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University
 
Speakers:  Jonathan B. Tucker, Senior Researcher, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies and Michael Moodie, President, Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, Washington, DC
 
February 27, 2004 - Development of New Pathogens Should not be Part of a Biodefense Program
Chair:  Lee Silver, Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Affairs, Princeton University
 
Speaker:  Guy B. Roberts, Principal Director, Negotiations Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense
 
March 26, 2004 - Technical, Economic and Legal Obstacles to the Development of Vaccines and Other Therapeutics for Potential Bioterrorism Agents
Chair:  Leon Rosenberg, Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Affairs, Princeton University
 
Speaker:  Adel Mahmoud, President, Merck Vaccines, Merck and Company, Inc.
 
April 23, 2004 - Response of the Life-sciences Community to the Biodefense Challenge
Chair: Tom Shenk, Chair, Dept. of Molecular Biology, Princeton University and President, ASM
 
Speaker:  Ron Atlas, President emeritus, ASM and Professor of Biology, University of Louisville
 
May 21, 2004 - The Policy Agenda:  Responses to the Seminar Series
Laura Kahn, Tom Shenk, Susan Wright, Jonathan B. Tucker, and Frank von Hippel