Penrose (Parney) C. ALBRIGHT, PhD | Rakesh BHATNAGAR, PhD | Anita CICERO, JD | Pawan K. DHAR, PhD | David R. FRANZ, DVM, PhD | Jaishree GARHYAN, PhD | Gigi GRONVALL, PhD | Margaret A. HAMBURG, MD | William P. HOSTYN, MS | Tom INGLESBY, MD | Ambassador Ronald F. LEHMAN, II | Indira NATH, MD | Maureen O’LEARY, PhD, MBA | S. R. RAO, PhD | Sanjana RAVI, MPH
Dr. Albright joined HRL in 2014 after serving as director and associate director at large, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and senior advisor, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), where he supported IARPA as well as ODNI senior leadership on a variety of issues.
Before he joined LLNL, Dr. Albright served from August 2005 to November 2009 as president and vice-chairman of the board of Civitas Group, LLC. He led the analytic team in support of the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, and he led the development and publication of a comprehensive Biodefense Net Assessment under DHS sponsorship.
In October 2003 Dr. Albright was confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security in the Department of Homeland Security. He served in that position until July 2005. His responsibilities included developing the multiyear strategic planning guidance and budget execution for the complete portfolio of programs comprising the Science and Technology Directorate. Dr. Albright served as principal scientific advisor to the secretary of Homeland Security on issues associated with science, technology, and the threat of biological, nuclear, and chemical terrorism. On these issues he served as the department’s primary representative to other US government agencies, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and foreign governments.
Between January 2002 and the startup of the Department of Homeland Security, Dr. Albright concurrently held the positions of senior director for research and development in the Office of Homeland Security and assistant director for homeland and national security in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He was the lead official in the White House responsible for providing advice to the Executive Office of the President on science and technology issues surrounding homeland security and on the threat of biological, nuclear, and chemical terrorism. In July 2002, he was asked to lead the planning for the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Directorate of the proposed Department of Homeland Security; this later evolved into the Science and Technology Directorate.
Between 1999 and being asked to serve in the White House after the events of September 11, 2001, Dr. Albright worked in the Advanced Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). While there, he developed and managed programs associated with special operations, intelligence collection, molecular biology, communications, and maritime operations.
From 1986 until joining DARPA, Dr. Albright worked at the federally funded Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). While there, he became an internationally recognized expert on ballistic and cruise missile defense systems; space-based infrared and launch detection systems; and weapons and sensor system design and analysis.
He has authored several policy papers for internal or public consumption, primarily in the areas of homeland and national security. He has also been the author of numerous technical publications and briefings, in both the open and classified literature, primarily in the areas of statistical physics, infrared phenomenology, space-based tactical warning and attack assessment systems, intelligence collection systems, and ballistic and cruise missile defense systems.
Dr. Albright received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the George Washington University (1979), and his master’s and doctorate in physics from the University of Maryland (1982 and in 1985, respectively).
Dr. Bhatnagar completed his PhD from the National Sugar Institute, Kanpur. Dr. Bhatnagar's research group has been actively working on the molecular biology and immunology of a number of infectious diseases, namely anthrax, rabies, tuberculosis and brucellosis, culminating in many international publications, and patents. The mandate of his laboratory is understanding the mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions, identification of potential vaccine and drug targets and development of improved and safe vaccine and therapeutics for these infections diseases. His research group aims towards covering a wide breadth of both fundamental as well as applied sciences. Fundamental research includes exploration of phenomena like programmed cell death and two component signal transaction in Bacillus anthracis: and deciphering novel virulence determinants in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. His vision is to investigate these process for design of novel antibacterial strategies. Dr. Bhatnagar’s applied research includes development of vaccines and therapeutics. He has to his credit the development of a genetically engineered protective antigen (PA) based vaccine against anthrax, which confer significant protection against virulent spore challenge in mice, guinea pigs, New Zealand white rabbits and rhesus macaques. The vaccine has successfully undergone pre-clinical toxicity studies and Phase I and II human clinical trials. Therapeutics development includes developing a bi-specific monoclonal antibody against the two anthrax toxins and his group is currently working towards development of a cognate single chain antibody which will also target the two toxins simultaneously, as well as humanizing it In Brucella infection biology, his group is working towards development of a recombinant vaccine and identification of new vaccine candidates against the disease. Novel vaccine delivery methods such as liposomes and nanoparticles are also being tested for antigen delivery.
Dr. Bhatnagar is the recipient of several awards and honors including J.C. Bose fellowships, Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences, Fellow at the Indian Academy of Sciences, Fellow at the Indian National Sciences Academy. His laboratory has been ranked 7th among the top ten eminent researchers publishing commendable research papers on anthrax, where the top 6 were from Institute Pasteur, Harvard, NIH and USAMRID. Dr. Bhatnagar is recipient of President of India award for the innovation.
Working with the CEO, Ms. Cicero directs operations, strategic and budget planning, and program development for the UPMC Center for Health Security. Since joining the Center, she has expanded the Center’s efforts in epidemic preparedness, nuclear resilience, and international programs.
Ms. Cicero has authored or co-authored a number of widely cited articles and reports on biosecurity policy, pandemic preparedness, nuclear and radiological consequence management, biosurveillance, international disease surveillance, and public health law.
In working to engage the Center in valuable new exchanges, Ms. Cicero has launched a number of initiatives to improve mutual understanding and collaboration with countries including China, Kuwait, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Taiwan.
Before joining the Center, Ms. Cicero spent nearly 2 decades as a practicing attorney in both the US federal government and the private sector. She was managing partner in charge of the Washington, DC, office of Drinker, Biddle & Reath, LLP, where she was responsible for more than 300 lawyers and staff. In her legal work, she created and managed a number of pharmaceutical consortia, with a particular focus on clinical research and regulatory compliance. Ms. Cicero’s work required constructive engagement with members of Congress; the World Health Organization; the European Commission; the US Food and Drug Administration; the US Departments of State, Defense, and Health and Human Services; and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Before entering private practice, Ms. Cicero focused on environmental litigation and counseling. She began her career as a trial attorney in the Honors Program at the US Department of Justice, Environmental Enforcement Section. Ms. Cicero is a graduate of the Yale Law School and of Oberlin College.
Pawan K. Dhar is professor and head, Synthetic Biology Group, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Prior to this, Prof. Dhar held faculty positions at RIKEN Genomics Sciences Centre, Bioinformatics Institute Singapore, Keio University, Kyoto University, and Manipal University. Prof. Dhar received his PhD in 1993 from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, for his work on human genetics.
Prof. Dhar’s lab is known for their work in making synthetic peptides and proteins for therapeutic applications. The synthetic proteome project that Prof. Dhar heads has a goal of building a novel drug discovery pipeline from sequences that are traditionally considered “junk.” Prof. Dhar’s dream is to transform the drug discovery space by offering a robust and untapped innovation pipeline using synthetic biology approaches.
As a part of social outreach, Prof. Dhar recently created the first Indian synthetic biology network, centered on responsible innovation, by bringing together scientists, students, and funding managers. Prof. Dhar has organized hands-on workshops and conferences, including the pre-iGEM competition, and serves on the external board of referees for the European Science Foundation and the Task Force of the Indian Govt. Marine Biotechnology Program.
Dr. Franz served in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for 23 of 27 years on active duty and retired as colonel. He served as commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and as deputy commander of the Medical Research and Materiel Command. Prior to joining the command, he served as group veterinarian for the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). He served as a committee member for the National Academy of Sciences study Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism (the Fink Report) and as a charter member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB). He co-chaired the NAS study Global Security Engagement (CTR 2.0) in 2009 and continues to chair the bio subgroup of the NAS Committee for International Security and Arms Control (CISAC). He holds an adjunct professorship, Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University. The current focus of his interest relates to the role of international engagement in public health and the life sciences as a component of global biosecurity policy. Domestically he continues to encourage thoughtfulness when regulating research in the name of security, thereby minimizing negative impacts on progress in the life sciences. Dr. Franz holds a DVM from Kansas State University and a PhD in physiology from Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Jaishree Garhyan has a broad background in the field of infectious diseases, with specific training and expertise in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). She has worked extensively with H. pylori and the bioterror weapon Bacillus anthracis. Her research work includes the mechanism of latent tuberculosis with a special emphasis on bone marrow stem cell niche and interaction of Mtb with other pathogens. Over the years, she has acquired extensive experience in providing training in BSL-3 laboratories in India and has worked in USA BSL-3s as well. Dr. Garhyan has played a crucial role in enhancing awareness of biosecurity and biosafety in the university setting in India. She has led the training for biosafety in independent symposiums and workshops in association with the American Society for Microbiology. She is a member of nonprofit science organization and contributes to boosting science in the challenging regions of India.
Dr. Garhyan has a growing interest in global biosecurity, biosafety, and global health and emergency preparedness. She has played a crucial role in Indo-US biosecurity and biosafety workshops since 2014, conducted in INSA, New Delhi, and Seychelles. Dr. Garhyan is an active member of the biosafety association of India and has actively participated and presented in Asia-Pacific biosafety association meetings in the past.
Gigi Gronvall is a senior associate at the UPMC Center for Health Security and an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health. She is an immunologist by training. Dr. Gronvall’s work addresses the role of scientists in health security—how they can contribute to an effective technical response against a biological weapon or a natural epidemic. She is particularly interested in developing policies that will boost the safety and security of biological science activities while allowing beneficial research to flourish. In a recent project, she identified gaps in international norms that govern biosafety and the response to laboratory errors. And in ongoing work funded through the Global Health Security Agenda, she is working with the ministries of health in Togo and Benin to develop national policies for biosafety, biosecurity, and infectious waste management.
Dr. Gronvall is the author of the book Synthetic Biology: Safety, Security, and Promise, to be published in fall 2016 (Health Security Press). While the synthetic biology discipline is poised to revolutionize important sectors for national security, there are technical and social risks. Dr. Gronvall describes what can be done to minimize risks and maximize the benefits of synthetic biology. She is also the author of Preparing for Bioterrorism: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Leadership in Biosecurity, which describes the major grants that represented Sloan’s investments in civilian preparedness, public health law, law enforcement, air filtering in buildings, influenza preparedness, and business preparedness.
Dr. Gronvall is a member of the Threat Reduction Advisory Committee (TRAC), which provides the Secretary of Defense with independent advice and recommendations on reducing the risk to the United States, its military forces, and its allies and partners posed by nuclear, biological, chemical, and conventional threats. In 2014-15, she led a preparatory group that examined the US government response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as a case study for DoD’s strategic role in health security and made recommendations for future DoD actions in response to disease outbreaks.
Dr. Gronvall served as the science advisor for the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism; she has testified before Congress about the safety and security of high-containment biological laboratories in the United States; and she has served on task forces related to laboratory and pathogen security, most recently the National Institutes of Health Blue Ribbon Panel to Review the 2014 Variola Virus Incident on the NIH Campus (2016) and the Committee for Comprehensive Review of DoD Laboratory Procedures, Processes, and Protocols Associated with Inactivating Bacillus anthracis Spores, formed in response to the Dugway anthrax shipments (2015). Dr. Gronvall has investigated and presented policy recommendations on the governance of science to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Gronvall is an associate editor of the journal Health Security (formerly Biosecurity and Bioterrorism). She is a founding member of the Center, and, prior to joining the faculty, she worked at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies. She was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Dr. Gronvall received a BS in biology from Indiana University, Bloomington. She subsequently worked as a protein chemist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and received a PhD from Johns Hopkins University for work on T-cell receptor/MHC I interactions.
Dr. Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine. She is the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), having stepped down from that role in April 2015 after almost 6 years of service. As FDA commissioner she was known for advancing regulatory science, streamlining and modernizing FDA’s regulatory pathways, and globalization of the agency. Before joining the FDA, Dr. Hamburg was founding vice president and senior scientist at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation dedicated to reducing nuclear, chemical, and biological threats. Previous government positions include assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, US Department of Health and Human Services; health commissioner for New York City; and assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Hamburg earned her BA from Harvard College and her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her medical residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American College of Physicians and is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Sciences, where she now serves as foreign secretary. Dr. Hamburg currently sits on the board of the Commonwealth Fund, the Simons Foundation, the Urban Institute, and the American Museum of Natural History. She is also a member of the Harvard University Global Advisory Council and the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Gates Foundation. She is the recipient of numerous awards and several honorary degrees.
Mr. Hostyn is the Director, Advisory Committees and Programs Office, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). In this capacity, he is the senior Department of Defense (DoD) Designated Federal Officer responsible for the Threat Reduction Advisory Committee (TRAC), a Federal Advisory Committee to the DoD. The TRAC provides the Secretary of Defense with independent advice and recommendations on reducing the risk to the United States, its military forces, and its allies and partners posed by nuclear, biological, chemical, and conventional threats. Additionally, Mr. Hostyn is the DoD program manager for the Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (PASCC).
Mr. Hostyn maintains international and interagency interface on programs, policy, and doctrinal issues and continues to be a principal liaison with think-tanks in the Washington D.C. area, the National Defense University - Center for the Study of WMD, the United States Air Force Academy - Institute for National Security Studies, and the Naval Post Graduate School – Center on Contemporary Conflict (PASCC program).
Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Hostyn was the Chief, Systems and Engineering Division in DTRA’s Advanced Systems and Concepts Office (ASCO). While assigned to ASCO, he oversaw the development and execution of technical projects and strategic international dialogues that cut across federal agencies for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat reduction in nuclear, chemical, biological and emerging requirements.
Mr. Hostyn retired from the United States Air Force in 2003 after more than 20 years of distinguished service. Having served on three major command staffs (Headquarters Tactical Air Command, Pacific Air Forces, and Air Force Space Command), he was primarily engaged in manpower and personnel force structure planning and execution of programs stemming from the Base Realignment and Closure Commission for installation-wide and unit level activation, inactivation, and conversions in missile, satellite, fixed and rotary wing weapon systems. A graduate of the Air University Contingency Warfare Planning Course, he further worked with Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) contingency warfare planning while serving on the Air Component Staff, Headquarters Seventh Air Force, Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea.
Mr. Hostyn has a B.S. in Organizational Management from Colorado Christian University, a M.S. in Public Administration from Troy State University and a M.S. in National Resources Strategy with a minor as a National Security Professional from the National Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Tom Inglesby is director of the UPMC Center for Health Security, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting people’s health from the consequences of epidemics and disasters and to ensuring that communities are resilient to those challenges. He is an associate professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
Dr. Inglesby’s work is internationally recognized in the fields of public health preparedness, pandemic flu and epidemic planning, and biosecurity. He is chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is chair of the National Advisory Council of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Health Security Preparedness Index. He is a member of the External Laboratory Safety Workgroup appointed by the CDC Director that is examining the biosafety practices of the CDC, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He is on the Advisory Committee to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response of the Department of Health and Human Services. He has also served on committees of the Defense Science Board and the National Academies of Sciences and in an advisory capacity to DHS and DARPA.
During the past 15 years, Dr. Inglesby has authored or co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, reports, and editorials on a range of issues related to health and security. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Health Security, which he helped to establish 14 years ago as the first peer-reviewed journal in its field, under its original title, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism. He was a principal editor of the JAMA book Bioterrorism: Guidelines for Medical and Public Health Management. He has been invited to brief White House officials from the past 3 presidential administrations on national biosecurity challenges and priorities, and he has delivered congressional testimony on public health preparedness and biosecurity. He is regularly consulted by major news outlets for his expertise. He is also on the board of directors of PurThread, a company dedicated to developing antimicrobial textiles.
Dr. Inglesby completed his internal medicine and infectious diseases training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he also served as Assistant Chief of Service in 1996-97. Dr. Inglesby received his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and his BA from Georgetown University. He continues to see patients in a weekly infectious disease clinic.
The Honorable Ronald F. Lehman II is the counselor to the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is also the chair of the US Department of Defense Threat Reduction Advisory Committee (TRAC) and recently co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences’ study on the future of Cooperative Threat Reduction. Since 1996, Dr. Lehman has been the chairman of the governing board of the International Science and Technology Center, a 39-nation intergovernmental organization. He was Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1989 to 1993, when START I, START II, the Chemical Weapons Convention, Conventional Forces in Europe, Open Skies, and other historic agreements where concluded.
Previously, he served in the US Department of Defense as assistant secretary for International Security Policy, in the State Department as ambassador and US chief negotiator on Strategic Offensive Arms (START I), and in the White House as deputy assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He has also served on the National Security Council staff as a Senior Director, in the Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary, on the Senior Professional Staff of the US Senate Armed Services Committee and in Vietnam, commissioned in the United States Army.
In past years, he served on the Presidential Advisory Board on Proliferation Policy, on the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board, as chair of the NATO High Level Group, on the governing board of the US Institute of Peace, and as a US representative to a number of United Nations disarmament and review conferences. Dr. Lehman formerly co-chaired the Policy Advisory Group on nonproliferation for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was on the Defense Science Board Task Forces on Globalization and Security, on Tritium, on Global Strike, and on Defense against Biological Weapons. He is currently on the National Research Council Committee on US Air Force Strategic Deterrence Military Capabilities in the 21st Century and served on the National Research Council's Committee on Science, Technology, and Health Aspects of the Foreign Policy Agenda of the United States and on its Committee on Alternative Technologies to Replace Anti-Personnel Landmines.
Dr. Lehman was detailed to the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration as counterterrorism coordinator after the September 11, 2001, attacks. For the Department of Energy, he was the US-Snezhinsk Working Group Co-Chair for the Joint Russian-American Steering Committee on the Nuclear Cities Initiative. He served on the advisory panel for USSTRATCOM's Global Innovation and Strategy Center. He was on the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on the US Nuclear Posture. He was a public affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
He received his PhD from Claremont Graduate University (1975) and his BA from Claremont McKenna College (1968). He is on the Board of Governors of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College, having served previously as its board chair. For many years, he was the director of the Center for Global Security Research at LLNL.
Indira Nath is former senior professor and head, Department of Biotechnology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and former Raja Ramanna fellow and emeritus professor, National Institute of Pathology (ICMR), New Delhi, India; director of Lepra Research Centre, Hyderabad, India; dean, Medical School, AIMST, Sungai Petani, Malaysia. She received an MBBS from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and later served on the faculty of AIIMS, making pioneering contributions to immunology research with her seminal work on cellular immune responses in human leprosy and a search for markers for viability of the leprosy bacillus which is not cultivable. She has also mentored many MBiotech, MD, and PhD students and made contributions to education, medical and science policies, science integrity, and women scientists’ issues. She continues to be on committees of the Indian Council of Medical Research and Department of Biotechnology as well as selection committees for faculty/directors of national institutions. She is on the Governing Body of Institute of Life Sciences and the Institute Body and Academic committee of the newly formed All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, India.
Dr. Nath was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet, Foreign Secretary INSA (1995-1997), council member (1992-1994 and 1998-2006) and vice president (2001-2003) of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, and chairperson, Women Scientists Programme, DST (2003), co-chair IAP on Responsible Research Conduct (2012), chair of Health and Wellbeing programme of International Council for Science (ICSU) (2012-2016). She was conferred civil awards, notably: Padmashri, India (1999); Chevalier Ordre National du Merite, France (2003); Silver Banner, Tuscany, Italy (2003).
Scientific recognition brought her both national and international awards, some notable ones being Raja Ramanna Fellowship (2010-14) , SN Bose Professorship of the Indian National Science Academy (1998-2002), L’Oreal UNESCO Award for Women in Science (Asia Pacific) (2002), SS Bhatnagar Award (1983), and the Basanti Devi Amir Chand Award by ICMR (1994). She was elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Delhi; National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (1988); Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1990); National Academy of Medical Sciences (India) (1992); Royal College of Pathology (1992); and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) (1995). She was conferred a DSc (hc) 2002, by Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France.
Maureen O’Leary is the director of environmental health and safety at Dartmouth College. She received her undergraduate degree from WPI and obtained her MBA and PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Before Dartmouth, she was a senior science advisor at MRIGlobal and served as the director of science integration in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for 15 months. While in Kazakhstan, she collaborated with US government and Kazakhstan ministry officials to provide advice on biosafety and biosecurity issues, policy, and laboratory design/training for the development of the Central Reference Laboratory there. Prior to working at MRIGlobal, she was the assistant director of academic safety and environmental health at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. O’Leary has been an active member of ABSA since 2004, was the president of the New England Biosafety Association (NEBSA) from 2010 to 2014, and is a current board member on the International Federation of Biosafety Associations (IFBA) and the president-elect of ABSA.
S. R. Rao, PhD, is advisor, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India. He has served in various positions in the department since 1989 and was associated with implementation of several national level programs on R&D, technology development and commercialization of biotechnology. Currently, his main responsibility is regulation of genetically engineering products including biosafety and biosecurity as a scientific member secretary of statutory body, namely Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, mandated with scientific risk assessment and management under rules, 1989 of Environmental Protection Act, 1986 of India.
Dr. Rao also serves as chairman of the Scientific Panel on GM Foods of the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), dealing with risk assessment of GM foods, and is also responsible for establishment of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India through enactment of legislation which replaces the existing regulatory framework.
Dr. Rao specializes in core and cross-sectoral policy issues of biotechnology policy, development, regulation, safety, public private partnership, international relations, biotech R&D innovation and development, and public concerns and consensus building. He has published more than 40 scientific papers and is chief editor of the Journal of Biosafety Research, launched in 2016.
Ms. Ravi is a senior analyst at the UPMC Center for Health Security. She is an associate editor of the peer-reviewed journal Health Security (formerly Biosecurity and Bioterrorism) and editor of Preparedness Pulsepoints, a weekly news brief covering federal action in health security. Her primary research interests include global health systems, infectious disease emergencies, responses to humanitarian crises, and the intersections between health, security, and human rights.
Ms. Ravi’s work focuses on understanding and improving public health and healthcare responses to a range of threats. She is involved with Center projects examining state and local preparedness, including an effort studying the roles of healthcare coalitions in enhancing emergency preparedness and another exploring risk communication challenges around emergency medical countermeasure distribution. Ms. Ravi has also written on public health preparedness in nuclear emergency planning zones in the United States, legal mechanisms for compensating victims of nuclear disasters, and the response and recovery challenges associated with catastrophes resulting in mass population displacement.
Ms. Ravi’s work has also addressed the health security implications of emerging technologies. She has led research on the roles of mobile technology in emergency healthcare delivery, as well as potential applications of telemedicine in pandemic response. Additionally, she helped lead an evaluation of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s efforts to address the societal impacts of synthetic biology practice. In that vein, Ms. Ravi is a fellow in the 2015 class of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program.
Ms. Ravi has also contributed to a number of the Center’s globally focused efforts. In 2014 and 2015, she helped plan the first ever strategic dialogues on biosecurity policy among the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In addition, she has conducted independent research on the sociocultural dimensions of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia, connections between health threats and development challenges, and the impacts of conflict and violence on global healthcare delivery.
In 2013, Ms. Ravi received a master of public health degree in infectious disease management, intervention, and community practice from the University of Pittsburgh, where her thesis explored the dynamics of blood product management during public health emergencies. She also contributed to research on nosocomial infections and public health education initiatives in Pittsburgh and served as a Global Impact Fellow with Unite for Sight in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, delivering basic eye care to underserved regions. Ms. Ravi earned a BA in biology from Saint Louis University in 2011.
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