DHS taps Hopkins for defense research

Hopkins will lead a consortium studying how the nation can best prepare for and respond to potentially large-scale disasters, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced Monday.

The Homewood Campus, now a part of one of five Homeland Security Centers of Excellence, can expect to see the effects of this prestigious $15 million grant as its schools will be involved in research and educational opportunities.

"Every part of the University will have representatives at the table," Jim Zeller, chair of the University Crisis Response Team, said. "One option that we will have is to develop coursework at the professional level and at the training level." He explained that there may be a graduate program created or research may be done by undergraduates and graduate students to create response models for fire departments, police department and emergency medical services.

Zeller said, "I could see opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to get involved in the discussion as well as the research for this."

The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences will take advantage of work going on in the center to provide education opportunities for undergraduates. The details of this program are still being worked out.

At the Whiting School of Engineering, the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute will be focusing on prevention of cyber-attacks and protecting information security. Its research will focus particularly on information in the electronic form.

But, as Zeller noted, "As we develop some best practices models for security these would eb applied to situations that could impact the Homewood Campus." However, he said, "there will not be a separate look at issues that will specifically affect the Homewood Campus."

The School of Professional Studies in Business and Education will be involved in the education and training aspects of the center's work. SPSBE's Division of Public Safety Leadership offers a graduate certificate in homeland security leadership as well as education programs for leaders in police, fire and EMS services and for Secret Service.

The School of Advanced International Studies is expected to play a large role in this research.

Daniel Hamilton, director of the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations, said, "This new DHS endeavor builds on our center's ongoing work on the international dimensions of homeland security, and we look forward to working with new partners on these activities, particularly on how the U.S. and its allies can prevent, deter, respond and recover from high consequence threats."

This past January , the center co-hosted "Atlantic Storm," an exercise that simulated a smallpox bioterrorism attack on the western world. The excercise revealed a critical need for added emergency preparedness at an international level.

Three books have also been published this year by those studying at the center: Transatlantic Homeland Security, Protecting the Homeland and Transforming Homeland Security.

The Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) will serve as the seat of the consortium. The Center of Excellence will be led by Dr. Lynn R Goldman, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, and Dr. Gabor D. Kelen, Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Director of CEPAR.

JHU's schools of Medicine, Public Health, Advanced International Studies, Engineering, Professional Studies in Business and Education, and the Applied Physics Laboratory will also serve as consortium members.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Johns Hopkins created CEPAR to plan for and react to possible enterprise-wide catastrophes such as nuclear, biological or chemical attacks.

"We have invested over $2 million [into CEPAR]" President William Brody said, who spoke at the event.

"This is a significant investment on our part, but we believe we have already seen significant returns."

The University expects to invest another $3.5 million into the program in addition to the grant received from The Department of Homeland Security.

"The knowledge developed by this new center will go a long way toward assuring the best possible preparation and the most humane, coordinated effort possible to assist victims and speed recovery," Brody said.

The Centers of Excellence, overseen by the Office of University Programs within the Homeland Security Science & Technology directorate, establish a network of university-biased centers that conduct multi-disciplinary research and develop innovative educational programs.

"Since 9/11, our academic institutions and universities have played an indispensable role to protect our country through a wide range of threats," Chertoff said.

"Johns Hopkins University has assembled and will lead a talented and deeply experienced team of professionals from institutions across the country," he said.

"Together they will help the Department of Homeland Security strengthen the nation's ability to prevent and, where necessary, effectively manage high-consequence disasters or terrorist attacks," he added.

The new center will focus on the theory and practice of high consequence response and how interdepartmental decisions are, and should be, made with particular attention given to risk management.

"We are trying at the Department of Homeland Security to make risk management ... a template on terms of decision making," Chertoff said. His goal is for the DHS to adopt a "Philosophy of decision through risk [management]."

According to Chertoff, risk management is an important tool that will help the department confront difficult choices. As of right now, however, it is a concept that is more often recommended, and less often used.

Chertoff hopes that through the work of the Center, a sustainable Homeland Security system can be formed. This system would ideally be able to change as time changes without revamping entire networks already in place. Pointing to the recent updates in airline security screening,

Chertoff explained that the DHS is refocusing its attention away from the threats that arose after 9/11 to the next level of threats that face the country, and that the Center for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response will be vital in making the transformation easier in the future.

Johns Hopkins' proposal was selected from among thirty-four that were received and reviewed by a team of 38 peer reviewers from academia, the private sector and multiple government agencies.

The three-tier review process evaluated scientific and technical merit, mission relevance and management effectiveness.

The University is now the fifth Homeland Security Center of Excellence, formally titled the Center for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response.

Existing Homeland Security Centers of Excellence include: The Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, directed by the University of Southern California; The National center for Food Protection and Defense, directed by the University of Minnesota; The National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense, directed by Texas A&M University; The Center for Behavioral and Social Research on Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism, directed by the University of Maryland; and The Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment, a separate but closely associated venture, jointly sponsored by DHS and the US Environmental Protection Agency and led by Michigan State University.