A Day in the Life of an 

UNMOVIC Inspector

Dr. Rocco Casagrande

Director of the Homeland Security Program
Abt Associates
Cambridge, MA

Here's your chance to find out more about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction from someone involved in searching for them before the Iraq conflict started. Dr. Casagrande will discuss the following topics

* Why Inspections?

* A typical day in Iraq before the conflict

* The Types of activities undertaken by UNMOVIC inspectors

* The role biological sampling and analysis

* Types of sites visited by UNMOVIC inspectors

* The justification for a conflict

Dr. Rocco Casagrande is the Director of the Homeland Security Program at Abt Associates. His projects at Abt Associates focus on the bringing rigorous scientific analysis to problems of homeland defense. For example, Dr. Casagrande provides biological threat analysis to improve the design and testing of biological agent detectors for MIT Lincoln Laboratories. For the FBI, Dr. Casagrande leads a team of scientists to evaluate simple, broad-spectrum, protein detection devices for use by law enforcement officials while responding to potential biological attacks.

From December 2002 to March 2003, Dr. Casagrande served as an UNMOVIC biological weapons inspector in Iraq where he obtained hands-on experience with chemical and biological agents. In Iraq, Dr. Casagrande acted as the chief of the UN biological analysis laboratory. As laboratory chief it was his responsibility to collect and analyze potentially hazardous biological samples and to develop standard operating practices and safety procedures for other inspectors collecting samples. During his time in Iraq, Dr. Casagrande participated in over 50 inspections and led approximately one dozen. With a background in biotechnology and agricultural biological warfare, Dr. Casagrande was an integral part on all inspections of agricultural facilities and biological research and development sites. His experiences in Iraq were detailed in a biographical article carried in Scientific American.

Prior to working for UNMOVIC, Dr. Casagrande led a team of biologists and engineers to test and develop real-time detectors for biological agents while working as a scientist at Surface Logix, a Boston-based biotechnology firm. Dr. Casagrande has written several articles on the topic of biological defense and has consulted on chemical and biological warfare and defense for several congressional staffers and government agencies. Because of his background, Dr. Casagrande was invited to write a pair of articles on the detection of biological attacks for Scientific American. In these articles, Dr. Casagrande discusses high-tech gadgetry in a manner that is accessible to non-scientists. Dr. Casagrande has also presented on the impact of genomics and proteomics in biological defense and biological nonproliferation at two NATO meetings.

For the past five years, Dr. Casagrande has been studying the problem of agricultural bioterrorism. Dr. Casagrande was one of the first to realize that the same factors that make many terrorist groups unwilling to execute a biological attack on people would actually motivate these groups to execute a biological attack on agriculture. This theory was included in his first article on agricultural biological warfare (published in the Nonproliferation Review in 2000), which was one of the first articles which seriously considered agricultural bioterrorism. Dr. Casagrande has been consulted as an expert on agricultural biological warfare by the department of defense, congressional staffers and in NATO advanced research workshops. For a project for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Advanced Systems and Concepts Office, Dr. Casagrande reviewed an emerging veterinary pathogen for its implications on agriculture, public health and the environment and then suggested research pathways that may reduce the impact of the disease.

Dr. Casagrande holds a B.A. in chemistry and a B.A. in biology from Cornell University where he graduated magna cum laude and a Ph.D. in experimental biology from MIT. During his academic career, Dr. Casagrande published several articles on his novel research in molecular biology, cell biology, genetics and biochemistry.

Thursday 11/20/03 210 PM 100 Neville Hall

Application of Acoustic Particle Velocity Sensorics for Port Perimeter Security

Dr. Paul Wlodkowski

Engineering Department
Maine Maritime Academy
Castine, ME

ABSTRACT

Maritime security programs are in need of reliable technology to safeguard against threats to our harbors and ships. The development of a  high-sensitivity, low-noise acoustic particle velocity sensor in a small package remained a formidable technical challenge for many years. With the advent of single crystal piezoelectric material, however, that goal has been achieved. Given the exceptional performance of these vector transducers, the feasibility of this technology to harbor defense is
investigated.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Wlodkowski is currently an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Maine Maritime Academy. His responsibilities include teaching and advancing the curriculum within the Marine Systems Engineering Program. He has thirteen years of industrial, manufacturing and academic experience that encompass the fields of applied physics, reliability engineering, acoustics, materials science, shock and vibration, sensor design, and radiation effects. As the Principal Staff Engineer and Program Manager at Wilcoxon Research, Inc., he led several of the Company's high technology programs in the research, development, and commercialization of directional, acoustic particle velocity transducers (Vector) utilizing single crystal piezoelectric materials. 

Tony Gauvin

Assistant Professor of eCommerce
University of Maine at Fort Kent
http//www.umfk.maine.edu/directory/bios/tgauvin.htm

Dr. Ray Albert

Associate Professor of Computer Science
University of Maine at Fort Kent
http//www.umfk.maine.edu/directory/bios/ralbert.htm

Information Assurance is quickly coming of age as an academic discipline. As results of recent events, many government, military and commercial agencies have a great need for college graduates with knowledge and skills in computer and network security, cryptography and security violation detection and response. Several national efforts are underway to increase the number of Information Assurance educators and graduates. Key funding agencies for these efforts include the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, The National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

Profs. Albert and Gauvin, recent graduates of the Information Assurance Education Graduate Certificate Program at the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University, will discuss the current state of the Information Assurance Awareness, Education and Research and those programs and institutions that are supporting ongoing efforts in this new academic discipline. There will be an additional discussion of the curriculum changes made at the University of Maine at Fort Kent in support of new multi-disciplinary concentration in Information Assurance along with discussion of other possible endeavors that may develop in the near future.