President's science adviser to address IEEE International Homeland Security Conference

WASHINGTON (17 March 2008)-- Dr. John Marburger, science adviser to President Bush, will be the keynote speaker at the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security.

The eighth-annual conference is scheduled for 12-13 May at the Westin Hotel in Waltham, Mass. For more information and to register, go to http://www.ieeehomelandsecurityconference.org/ .

The National Science and Technology Council, Nuclear Defense Research and Development Subcommittee, calls the conference “the key homeland security conference in 2008 to share the U.S. nuclear defense research and development roadmap with the global technology innovation community.”

Marburger, director of the Office of Science and Technology, came to the Executive Office of the President after serving as director of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. He was president of the State University of New York at Stony Brook from 1980-84, and before that a professor of physics and electrical engineering at the University of Southern California. While at the Los Angeles school, he developed theory for various laser phenomena and co-founded USC’s Center for Laser Studies.

General themes of the conference are:

• Transportation security focused on chemical, biological and high explosives, with special sessions on radiological and nuclear areas

• Infrastructure protection and cyber security, with emphasis on protecting the financial sector, communications and electric power networks, and focusing on threats to the chemical and refinery sectors

• Information sharing, interoperability and incident management technologies, high-level risk assessment and supporting technologies of modeling and simulation, emphasizing tools development

• Software assurance focused on software development, testing, legacy systems and infrastructure

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate, is providing technical assistance to support the conference. Robert Hooks, Director of Transition, DHS S&T Directorate, is the featured speaker and participated in the technical paper review committee.

About 200 selected technical papers from around the world will be featured, and more than 500 technology experts are expected to attend.

The conference is organized by the IEEE Boston Section and IEEE-USA. Industry sponsors include Massport, SAIC, Raytheon, Qwest, PSSG and ARES.

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 215,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. IEEE-USA is part of the IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional society with 370,000 members in 160 countries. See http://www.ieeeusa.org.