December 7, 2001
Contact: Jim
Burns (831/459-2495)
UC Santa Cruz chancellor named to national counter-terrorism
committee
Group will help U.S. government develop a science
and technology strategy for combating terrorism
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Chancellor Greenwood |
SANTA CRUZ, CA--M.R.C. Greenwood,
chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, has been named to serve on a committee of distinguished
scientists and engineers who will make recommendations on how the world's scientific
and technical resources can best be used to respond to the threat of "catastrophic
terrorism."
Chancellor Greenwood is one of 24 members of The National Academies' newly formed
Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism. The committee will
convene for the first time on December 19-20, in Washington, D.C.
The project is designed to help the U.S. government develop a "science and technology
program plan and research strategy" for combating terrorism.
In particular, in the next six months the committee will:
- Prepare a taxonomy of sorts that will
characterize the range of threats to the nation's security--describing targets, weapons,
and delivery systems, and the possible points of intervention.
- Identify the "highest-leveraged opportunities
for research" to counter terrorism. The examination will incorporate the following
areas of inquiry: biological; chemical; nuclear and radiological; information technology,
computers, and telecommunications; transportation; energy facilities, buildings,
and fixed infrastructure; and behavioral, social, and institution issues.
- Develop an integrated science and technology
plan for combating terrorism that considers multidisciplinary research topics. The
plan will also consider threats that arise from the interdependence of these areas.
The project is intended to help the federal
Office of Science and Technology Policy "use effectively the nation's and the
world's scientific and technical community in a timely response to the threat of
catastrophic terrorism," according to the committee's Statement of Task.
The National Academies consists of four prestigious organizations: the National Academy
of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and
the National Research Council.
Chancellor Greenwood, a member of the Institute of Medicine, also serves on a number
of other national and state scientific organizations, including the National Science
Board, Governor Davis's Council on Bioscience, and the board of the California Healthcare
Institute. A past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Greenwood has research interests in developmental cell biology, genetics, physiology,
nutrition, and science and higher education policy issues.
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