Securing Global Flows of Cargo and People: Interdisciplinary Education and Research in
Security Policy, Science & Technology and Modeling & Evaluation
Contact:
Rey Koslowski
Associate Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Informatics
Director, Research Program on Border Control and Homeland Security
Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy
University at Albany (SUNY)
135 Western Avenue
Albany, New York 12222
Tel: +423 663/082853 (during 2006)
Email: rkoslowski@earthlink.net
Web: http://www.albany.edu/~rk289758/
The 9/11 attacks have painfully revealed the growing risk of terrorist attacks using global transportation
networks of both cargo and people. This has led, for example, to increasing pressure to shut down
international borders to trade and travel -- an action that could bring the global economy to a halt.
Unfortunately, the 9/11 Commission found that resolution of complex Homeland Security problems are
hindered by the lack of an epistemic community on Homeland Security issues. Academically,
graduate educational programs in engineering and business are yet to include systematically security
topics in their curricula. In a similar vein, programs in international security and international political
economy have not yet incorporated an understanding of global logistics networks and their vulnerabilities
in a systematic way.
This proposal aims to establish an IGERT program with regional, national and international participants
(both academic and industrial) to conduct multi-disciplinary research and to fund the educaion and
training of PhD students in the area of Homeland Security, focusing on two key themes: securing cargo
flows and securing people flows. The program will deliver well-rounded research and education in the
three components of the Homeland Security framework: public security policy, science & technology,
and modeling & evaluation of field operations to provide feedback to both policy makers and
technologists. The proposed program identifies key thrust areas of security-related research within the
aforementioned Homeland Security components, which are germane to the two themes above, and
outlines a program of specific projects. Research topics encompass policy analysis, risk analysis and
assessment, mathematical and simulation modeling and performance evaluation, systems optimization,
and Homeland Security supporting technologies, such as sensors, data mining and cyber security.
The proposed IGERT program develops a Homeland Security PhD curriculum with a set of core courses
and electives that will afford IGERT students an integrated multifaceted education. It will offer a rich
collection of educational and training activities to enhance academic excellence and to foster
collaboration and professional ethics. These include internships, Summer Institutes, group projects,
funded visits to partner institutions, grants for overseas study and research at partner institutions, as well
as educational travel, including presentation of research at professional meetings. It will further assist
IGERT students in placement at academic, government and private-sector organizations.
This proposal assembles an interdisciplinary faculty team from Rutgers University, SUNY-Albany and
Princeton University as a special interest group on Homeland Security research and education. The team
is located around the strategically important New York / New Jersey transportation hub -- a major entry
area of cargo and people into the U.S. through a large complex of maritime ports and airports, and a
ready-made practice field for faculty and students. A strong international contingent of researchers,
mainly European, will collaborate with the IGERT program (We seek additional partners)
Educational impacts. Program graduates will become faculty members in public administration, public
policy and business programs, and will train the policymakers, public managers and business executives
of the future. An energetic recruitment program aims to attract qualified women and minority students.
Broader impacts. The proposed program’s key impacts are a significant contribution to the creation
of an epistemic community in Homeland Security, and research that bridges the gap between
policymakers and technologists and offers practical solutions to Homeland Security problems.
The proposed IGERT program is multi-institutional, with PIs from Rutgers University (lead institution),
State University of New York (SUNY) and Princeton University, with participating faculty from core,
national and international institutions bringing together expertise in knowledge domains from political
science, industrial and systems engineering, business school, criminal justice, electrical engineering,
computer science, biomedical engineering, operations research, maritime engineering and decision
sciences. The following tables list all academic program participants.
Core Faculty
T. Altiok (PI)
B. Melamed (co-PI)
R. Koslowski (co-PI)
A. Kornhauser (co-PI)
Core Participating Faculty
E.A. Elsayed, M. Jafari, M. Gursoy
A. Maher, M. Boile
L. Lei, Y. Zhao
G. Shafer
D.T. Ogilvie
D. Metaxas
Y. Lu
L. Kennedy
E. Boros, A. Kogan
F. Roberts
V. Asal
S. Dawes, A. Cresswell, T. Pardo
D.Andersen, G. Richardson, R.
MacDonald
E. Rich
G. Lahav
S. Yahalom, L. Howard
R. Vanderbei, W. Powell
National Participating Faculty
R.W. Hall
R. Van Dorp
D. Rejeski
International Participating Faculty
S. Vertovec
A. Bruzzone
E. Yucesan
T. Shulz
B. Balcioglu
M.A. Piera
I. Or
Core Institution and Academic Unit
Rutgers, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Rutgers, Rutgers Business School
University at Albany (SUNY), Political Science
Princeton, Financial Engineering and Operations Research
Core Institution and Academic Unit
Rutgers, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Rutgers, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Rutgers Business School, Management Science / Information Systems
Rutgers Business School, Accounting Information Systems
Rutgers Business School, Business Environment
Rutgers, Computer Science/Biomedical Eng
Rutgers, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rutgers, Criminal Justice
Rutgers, Rutgers Center for Operations Research
Rutgers, Center for Discrete and Theoretical Computer Science
University at Albany (SUNY), Political Science
University at Albany (SUNY), Center for Technology in Government
University at Albany (SUNY), Center for Policy Research
University at Albany (SUNY), Business School
SUNY Stonybrook, Political Science
SUNY Maritime College, Center for Transportation Research
Princeton, Financial Engineering and Operations Research
National Participating Institution
University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA
George Washington University, Washington, DC
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC
International Participating Institution
Oxford University, UK
University of Genoa, Italy
INSEAD, France
Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany
University of Toronto, Canada
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Bosphorus University, Turkey