A program of the UC Institute on
Global Conflict and Cooperation funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York
Participants 2006
IGCC is pleased
to announce the third 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 2006 PPBT
program has thirteen participants from five of the ten UC campuses,
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Princeton University.
PPBT participants meet in July 2006 for a two-week training
program on the UC San Diego campus in La Jolla, California.
Benjamin
Hickler is a doctoral candidate in medical anthropology at UCSF
and UC Berkeley. His research is concerned with anthropological and sociological
implications unleashed at the nexus of techne, law, and biology. His current
project focuses on the negotiation of problems of access to and control over
biological resources as they arise in a range of practical (political, ethical,
and technical) endeavors associated with "biosecurity." With IGCC
support, he will be working in Australia and Southeast Asia next year with
a variety of professionals concerned with zoonotic disease detection, surveillance,
and response. Ben looks forward to talking with fellow workshop participants
about their work in the vibrant fields of biosecurity.
Gautam
Mukunda is a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in political science focusing on
international
relations and international security. He is a 2005 Paul & Daisy Soros
New American Fellow. Before graduate school Mukunda was a consultant with
McKinsey & Company
focusing on the pharmaceutical and financial industries. He is also the founding
Managing Director of the Two Rivers Group, a strategy consulting firm that
brings the insights of and knowledge of the academic world to bear on problems
facing the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Mukunda worked at the
Kennedy School of Government as administrator of the Russian investment symposium
and as program coordinator of the Kommersant Program on Executive Education
in
Russia.
Mukunda's research interests include the role of psychological factors
in international relations, the theory and policy implications of disruptive
innovation,
and the impact of "black swan" events on public policy. He is a
National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow in MIT's Program on
Emerging Technologies where he studies the management of emerging technologies,
focusing on the international security and intellectual property implications
of biotechnology. He graduated from Harvard College in 2001 magna
cum laude with
an A.B. in Government. He is a board member and chair of the mentorship
committee of the Upakar Foundation, a national non-profit dedicated to
providing
college scholarships to underprivileged Indian-Americans.
Neil
Narang is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Political
Science at UC San Diego. He has concentrated his studies in international relations,
political theory, and methodology. Narang's research interests include
the emergence and increasing legal sophistication of international treaties
in the areas of security and human rights, as well as the institutions these
agreements create. He is also interested in the varying qualities of normative
justifications for interstate conflict and cooperation as revealed through
treaties and declarations.
Narang received his bachelor's degrees in political science and molecular
cell biology from UC Berkeley in 2004. As an undergraduate, he conducted
research in political science at Berkeley and published his
senior paper in the Ethnic Studies Review. As a native of New Mexico,
he has also
spent several summers working in various divisions of the Los Alamos National
Laboratory and is currently working with Dr. James Doyle (former IGCC steering
committee member) in the Nonproliferation Division.
Ali
Nouri is
currently a graduate student in molecular biology at Princeton
University. His research focuses on using Drosophila melanogaster,
the fruit fly, as a model organism to study the genetic basis of colon cancer.
Prior
to coming to Princeton, Nouri was a research assistant at the Oregon
Health Sciences University, where he studied the molecular basis of retroviral
entry into cells. Upon the completion of his Ph.D., he is planning to join
the
Woodrow Wilson School's Program on Science and Global Security in order
to work on issues related to biological security.
Jennifer
Ramos is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Davis in the political science department
and a graduate fellow at the UC Washington Center. Her academic interests include
international relations, international organizations, political psychology
and U.S. foreign
policy. Her
current work focuses on the intersection of sovereignty and human rights issues,
and she has a forthcoming co-authored article on political behavior under crisis
conditions.
Michael
Rose is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at UC Santa
Cruz. His current research is focused on synthetic inorganic chemistry,
in particular
the synthesis of metal nitrosyls (nitric
oxide donors) that can be used as tools in chemical biology research. Rose
graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in fermentation science, and has industrial
experience in biological fermentations and pharmaceutical research.
Rose's interest in the intersection of science and public policy is driven
by the need for novel sensor and warning systems in case of chemical or biological
attack. Additionally, he is interested in the continuing international control
over such weapons.
Aaron Rowe will be a second-year Ph.D. student in biochemistry at UC Santa Barbara. He works with Professor
Kevin
Plaxco on the design of new biosensor architectures. Eventually, he hopes to
construct handheld devices that can be used to detect chemical and biological
weapons and illicit drugs. Upon graduation, he hopes to work in defense, intelligence,
or the biopharmaceutical industry.
Other than biosensors, Rowe is fascinated by first-aid technology, soft body
armor, telepresent weapons systems, less lethal weapons, and militarized outdoor
equipment. At some point, he would like to pursue an entrepreneurial venture
related to these disciplines.
Rowe is an Eagle Scout and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign with a B.S. in materials science and engineering. While studying
there, he worked on self-repairing construction materials, was a writer for
the local
engineering magazine, a resident advisor, teaching assistant for an upper division
synthesis of materials course, and the founder of an award-winning club for
undergraduate materials research. After graduation, he earned a M.S. in organic
chemistry from Cal State University Northridge while working for a forensic
engineering firm. He has recently started writing for the law enforcement magazines
Law and Order and Tactical Response.
In
2000, Juliana Ruzante graduated from veterinary school at
the University of São Paulo, Brazil. After graduation, she worked as
a consultant and then was hired by a meat- processing facility where she worked
in the department of quality assurance and environment. In 2002, Ruzante started
her Ph.D. program in the Comparative Pathology Group at UC Davis. She is currently
nearing her fourth year and has had the opportunity
to improve her laboratory skills and acquire in-depth knowledge of basic and
applied sciences, as well as consolidating her knowledge in pathology, food
safety, and animal health. This year, she is also starting her Masters in preventive
veterinary medicine in order to strengthen her skills in epidemiology and data
analysis.
Ruzante is currently working on her thesis project, which involves the development
of faster and more sensitive diagnostic method for the detection of Mycobacterium
avium subsp. paratuberculosis in milk, as well as the study of
a testing strategy to screening dairy herds for this disease. In addition,
she has been working at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security
for almost one year; during this period she has developed a farm worker
training course on agroterrorism awareness and a detection and diagnosis
course that is part of the DHS training grant curriculum for first-line responders.
Ruzante has been part of the organization of an all hazards exercise from
the California Department of Health Services. Her task was to develop an exercise
on avian flu to train frontline responders, and public and animal health officials
in how to act in case of an avian flu outbreak in United
States. She is also a member of Food Safety Research Consortium Advisory Committee.
Robert
Sweetin is a research aide with the Western Institute for Food
Safety and Security (WIFSS) at UC Davis. WIFSS conducts research in food
safety and defense, provides outreach programs to extend research and information
management programs to the public, and develops information management
systems that position the institute to be a leading resource for scientific
information.
Since joining WIFSS in 2004, Sweetin has developed a course, "The National
Incident Management System and the Principles of Risk Communication"
for a Dept. of Homeland Security-approved training curriculum, "Agroterrorism
Preparedness for Frontline Responders," as well as an awareness-level
training curriculum on agroterrorism for Spanish-speaking dairy farm
laborers. Sweetin also represents WIFSS on the California Office
of Homeland Security Training, Exercise, and Evaluation Program's
planning committee for statewide Golden Guardian exercises.
Benjamin
Tang will be a second-year Ph..D. student in political science
at UC San Diego. His academic interests are international security,
the
role of the Unitd States in world affairs, and the forms of political
authority in the international system. He is looking into dissertation
topics
related to sovereignty, federalism, and non-state actors.
Tang graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC San Diego with a B.S. in bioengineering,
after which he worked for a biomedical devices startup. His interest
in international relations arose during his two years teaching English
in Japan, when witnessing the U.S. influence on Japanese society and
the anti-American slant of friends from other English-speaking countries.
He pursued an M.Sc. in international relations at the University of Bristol.
Gartrell
White is a strategic security research assistant in biosecurity
at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). Gartrell is a native
of North Carolina, where he received his B.S. in biology from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Before joining FAS, he worked
as a research technician and assistant at the Lineberger Comprehensive
Cancer
Center at UNC-CH and at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown
University.
At FAS, White works with the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control project,
which is developing a biosecurity education program for graduate-level
science students. He also developed and is maintaining the Biosecurity
and Biodefense Resource, web pages dedicated to biosecurity policy, bioterrorism
information, and biodefense research.
Jill
Woodard is assistant to the director of the Western Institute for
Food Safety and Security (WIFSS) at UC Davis.
WIFSS brings together state, federal, private industry, and academia to address
food safety and defense issues in the areas of research, outreach, and information
management.
Woodard has been with the institute since its inception in September 2002.
She oversees activities across all sections of the institute, developing a
substantive understanding of the many projects and initiatives underway.
Quanyi
Zhang is an associate professor, international business supervisor,
senior translator, and council member of the China-Latin America
Studies.
He received his Master's from the School of Political Science and
International Studies, University of Birmingham, UK, and is now pursuing
a Ph.D. at the School of International Relations, Shanghai International
Studies.
Quanyi has a great awareness of the importance of value construction in the
current global world, stressing the great necessity of identity studies, especially
for the purpose of erasing terrorism. This awareness has greatly derived from
his sense of idealistic responsibility accumulated from his understanding of
conflicts existing within both domestic and international societies. His publications
mostly concern conflict resolution and identity construction regarding nationalism
and regional terrorism. Quanyi's most recent article "From Nationalism
to Internationalism: Prescribing to the Thorny Sino-Japanese Relations" was
published in Social Sciences Review (December 2005). He prefers interdisciplinary IR studies
based
on philosophy, history, psychology, and politics. His research focuses on the
question "Can identity be constructed between state and cell?"
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