Public Policy and
Biological Threats

A program of the UC Institute on
Global Conflict and Cooperation

funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York

Participants 2004–05

IGCC is pleased to announce the first group of participants in the Public Policy and Biological Threats (PPBT) summer training program, funded in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The PPBT program has twelve participants who come from six of the nine UC campuses and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. PPBT participants came together in July 2004 for a two-week training program on the UC San Diego campus in La Jolla, California.

2004–05 PPBT Participants

Eliot Bourk is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in molecular pathology at UC San Diego. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2003 with a B.A. in biochemistry and a minor in artificial intelligence, and was recipient of the Case Western Reserve University Trustees' Scholarship. Eliot has conducted research in the fields of cancer biology and immunology/pathogenesis, focusing on integrated signaling/regulatory networks and host-pathogen interactions.

Bourk has been interested in public policy issues since participating for two years in a state-wide government education program for high-school students. His policy interests include biological weapons issues, healthcare, and regulation of biomedical research and the biotech/pharmaceutical industries. Eliot is a brother of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and in his spare time is an avid musician and surfer.

Raymond J. Clark is a policy analyst in the Office of Government and Community Relations at UC San Diego, where he provides IT support and programmatic assistance on science and technology issues in the San Diego region. He is also a founding member of the Executive Board of the National Postdoctoral Association and functions as the national policy coordinator and an expert on scientific workforce issues for this new non-profit.

In 2002, Clark participated in a working group on biological, chemical, and nuclear terrorism at the annual meeting of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and traces his interest in homeland security and biosecurity issues to this experience. A former postdoctoral fellow in molecular cardiology, Clark now works on a variety of projects designed to increase the visibility and enhance the reputation for science and technological innovation of the San Diego region, and UC San Diego in particular. An important part of his effort is to build interest in and promote participation by young scientists (postdocs and graduate students) in policy-related projects and events. In addition, he is involved in a variety of projects designed to focus attention on alternative career pathways for young scientists. He continues to serve as a research consultant for projects in amphibian and avian biodiversity, and has also formed a company (Nguyen and Clark, LLC) that is developing residential real estate for low- to medium-income families in San Diego.

A native Californian, Omar Clay has worked his way down the coast, studying at UC Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. Although his interest in sustainable policy developed early, his formal education reflects a broad interest in fundamental science. He has been awarded numerous academic honors and holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics, physics, and psychology.

Currently a physics Ph.D. student in a neuro-physics lab at UCSD, his research has primarily focused on nonlinear quantum physics with an eye for application in ultra-fast laser-based brain imaging technology. His interests include chaotic dynamics, networks of coupled oscillators, education research, international security, foreign policy, nuclear science and nonproliferation, missile defense, biotechnology, and the interplay between science and policy. Clay is an active participant in several local political and policy groups, including UCSD’s Science Policy Analysis Roundtable and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Environmental Science Policy group. He is always alert for new developments and opportunities in these and related areas.

Skyler J. Cranmer is a graduate student in political science at the University of California, Davis. His primary field of study is international relations and his area of focus is international security. Cranmer’s research centers on terrorism, internet security, and weapons of mass destruction; biological weapons in particular.

Cranmer Received his B.A. in Criminal Justice and his M.A. in International Relations at San Francisco State University. Concurrently, he has worked for the United States Secret Service with the San Francisco Office’s Electronic Crimes Task Force.

Ali Douraghy attended UC San Diego, where he graduated with a B.S. in bioengineering and a minor in Middle Eastern studies. Eager to extend his interest in international affairs and specifically the Middle East, he spent a year studying at the American University in Cairo after graduation.

Upon his return, Douraghy began graduate studies at UC Los Angeles, where he is currently finishing a M.S. in biomedical engineering. He will continue in the fall of 2004 as a doctoral student in biomedical physics.

Douraghy's research interest is the development of novel Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging systems. His current research at the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging at UCLA is on the design of a dual modality-optical and PET imaging system.

His other interests include travel abroad, current affairs, foreign languages, and rock climbing. Following his graduate studies, he plans to use his unique knowledge and talents in an area related to international affairs.

Seth Jacobson received an A.B. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard College in 1992. While at Harvard he served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. Upon graduation Jacobson spent several years in the private sector, including serving as director of Nickelodeon Software and Books in New York. Jacobson has also worked with interactive media and internet technologies at Imaginengine, Inc., eThumbs.com, Inc., and LivePlanet, Inc., respectively.

Jacobson is currently employed with the Riordan Institute for Homeland Security while also pursuing an MBA with the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Prior to enrolling in the UCLA-MBA program Jacobson had completed his first graduate degree with UCLA's School of Public Policy and Social Research.

Andrew Lakoff is an assistant professor of sociology and science studies at UC San Diego. He was trained as an anthropologist at UC Berkeley, and was a postdoctoral fellow in social medicine at Harvard University from 2000–2002.

Lakoff's areas of interest include pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, globalization processes, the history of the behavioral sciences, and the social studies of risk and uncertainty. His forthcoming book, Pharmaceutical Reason: Technology and the Human at the Modern Periphery, examines the role of the global circulation of pharmaceuticals in the spread of biological models of human behavior. It is based on research conducted in Argentina, France and the United States. He has published articles on visual technology and the behavioral sciences, on the history of attention deficit disorder, and on the placebo effect. His current research focuses on the development of expertise in areas of high uncertainty. He is especially interested in how planners develop scenarios that can guide decision making.

Jamie Link received her B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University in 2000 where her thesis research focused on the superconductivity of rare earth borocarbides. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego, working for Professor Michael Sailor. Her current research involves the development of self-assembling, micron-sized photonic crystals of porous silicon (“smart dust”) for chemical sensing applications.

Bryan McDonald is Assistant Director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs and a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Social Ecology at at UC Irvine. He received a Master’s degree in Political Science from Virginia Tech in 1999. His research examines the changing shape of world politics since the end of the Cold War with a focus on human and unconventional security studies, environmental politics, and the role of science in politics.

McDonald is co-editor of Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War’s Hidden Legacy (SUNY Press, 2004). His work has been published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Global Environmental Politics, Organization & Environment, The Natural Resources Journal, Environment, Politics and the Life Sciences, and International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law, and Economics. McDonald has presented papers at meetings of the International Studies Association, the American Political Science Association, and the American Collegiate Schools of Planning.

Dale Rose is a graduate student in sociology advanced to candidacy at UC San Francisco. His intellectual interests vary, but generally relate to public health, science, technology and medicine topics.

His personal interests revolve around his fantastic three-month-old daughter, Sophia. Rose is currently doing dissertation research on bioterrorism preparedness at the municipal level.

Stajura earned his B.S. in 1995 at the U.S. Military Academy. He served in the active duty for eight years, not including his time at West Point. Ultimately leaving the army at the rank of captain, Stajura served as both an Infantry and Military Police officer. He spent a total of three years living on extended deployments in Honduras, Bosnia, and South Korea. He hopes to use his overseas experience to help developing nations improve their disaster response capabilities.

Meg Stalcup is a second-year graduate student in medical anthropology in the UCB/UCSF joint program in Critical Studies of Medicine, Science, and the Body. She graduated from the department of Biological Sciences at UCSD and then did fieldwork on plants of medicinal and ceremonial use in Brazil, for which she received an M.S. from the Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. She returned to the U.S. to participate in the Science Communication program at UCSC and continues to do freelance illustration work while completing her doctoral courses.

Stalcup's interest in biological threats and international (in)security, from bioterrorism to the international drug trade, is structured around the poles of science and technology studies and psychological anthropology. She plans to focus her research on social understandings of risk, and how affective states (such as fear or apathy) come into being and interplay with policy development and enactment.