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Biosecurity and science policy expert to speak at UGA

Biosecurity and science policy expert to speak at UGA

Athens, Ga. – Biosecurity and science policy expert Bradley Smith will present the second Science and Security Lecture on Feb. 8 on the University of Georgia campus.

Smith, senior associate at the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will give a lecture titled “Building Bridges between the Life Sciences and Public Policy” at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.

Smith’s lecture is part of a series held the second Thursday of the month in the Coverdell Center. Sponsored by the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute (BHSI) and Center for International Trade and Security (CITS), the series is free and open to the public.

A molecular biologist by training, Smith received a B.A. in biology from Williams College and a Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is an associate editor of the peer-reviewed journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, and he has authored several articles about policies regarding bioterrorism countermeasure research and development as well as international disease response.

In 2005, Smith served as the project director for the widely recognized Atlantic Storm exercise-a bioterrorism tabletop exercise in which international leaders from Europe and North America responded to a series of bioterrorist attacks. Today he serves as one of the principal organizers of the Alliance for Biosecurity, a collaborative effort involving UPMC and more than ten biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to promote the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases through innovative scientific and policy initiatives.

For more information about the lecture series or the Science and Security Initiative at UGA, please contact Harry Dailey at hdailey@uga.edu or Gary Bertsch, director of CITS, at gbertsch@uga.edu.