George Mason University

This three-day, non-credit short-course is designed to introduce participants to the challenges facing the world at the intersection of biodefense and public health. Private and public organizations face a number of challenges in the biosecurity domain. A bioterrorist attack is both a public health emergency and a criminal act whose perpetrators need to be apprehended. Likewise, pandemics can affect not just public health, but also public safety and national security. The causes and consequences of these risks extend far beyond any one nation’s borders.

Pandemics and bioterrorist attacks will also confront government agencies and the private sector with the need to make high-impact decisions with limited information during a rapidly evolving situation. Further complicating this domain is the dual-use nature of biology: the knowledge and skills developed for legitimate scientific and commercial purposes can be misused by actors with hostile intent. Thus, public health, law enforcement and national security agencies, pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and the academic life sciences community need to establish new priorities, such as developing new types of expertise, adopting new types of risk assessment and risk management strategies, and learning to collaborate with each other.

The intended audience for the course includes professionals and academics in public health, the life sciences, law enforcement, and national security who have responsibilities for preventing, preparing for, or responding to pandemics or bioterrorism.

All of the faculty have been extensively involved with research and policymaking on public health, biodefense and national security issues:

David R. Franz, DVM, PhD (SBDGlobal and National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity)

Kendall Hoyt, PhD (Dartmouth Medical School)

Gregory D. Koblentz, MPP, PhD (George Mason University)

Jens H. Kuhn, MD, PhD (Tunnell Consulting and Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick)

Sanford L. Weiner, PhD (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Edward H. You, MS (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

For more information and course registration, please visit ocpe.gmu.edu/PBIS.html