Argonne bolsters efforts in security research
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ARGONNE, IL — (Nov. 28, 2007) The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne
National Laboratory has expanded its capabilities to protect U.S. interests
at home and abroad.
The Vulnerability Assessment
Team (VAT) moved to Argonne's Nuclear
Engineering Division last month from Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The VAT conducts
multi-disciplinary research and development on physical security devices, systems
and programs.
"The VAT's expertise and capabilities align extremely well with Argonne's
work in national and homeland security," said Alfred Sattelberger, associate
director of physical sciences and applied science and technology at Argonne,
who helped to find the group a home at Argonne. "Since the tragedies
of Sept. 11, 2001, this lab has been actively bolstering its research portfolio
to support the federal government's national security efforts. We expect that
the VAT will be integrated into that work."
The VAT has worked extensively in the areas of product anti-counterfeiting,
tamper and intrusion detection, cargo security, nuclear safeguards and the
human factors associated with security using the tools of industrial and organizational
psychology.
The VAT made the move to Argonne because the team wants to make scientific
research an integral part of its activities – a strategy not typically considered
or employed when it comes to physical security, said Roger Johnston, who heads
the team.
"We're trying to elevate the field of physical security," said Johnston,
who earned a doctoral degree in physics from the University
of Colorado. "You
can't for the most part get a degree in physical security even though physical
security is extremely important and can often be a complex, multidisciplinary
problem. Unfortunately, security is not viewed in the same way that science
and technology is viewed. Too often, security is thought of as being black
or white—something is either secure or it is not. In reality, security is a
spectrum, with lots of tradeoffs and uncertainties. Security should be controversial,
constantly progressing and not thought of as having only one right answer.
There are intelligent approaches to addressing security unknowns and that's
where scientific research, including social science, comes into play."
Another reason Argonne was an appealing destination for the VAT team is the
lab's "attitude that it should be interacting with private industry," Johnston
said. "We want to work more with private industry. We've gotten a lot
of interest from companies about security." The VAT is especially interested
in collaborating with the pharmaceutical industry, which struggles with the
issue of how to deal with drug counterfeiting and tampering.
The VAT was also attracted to Argonne because of the laboratory's interest
in students. The VAT employed more than 50 student research assistants in 14
years at LANL.
Because the over-arching goal of the VAT team – which also includes Jon Warner,
a systems engineer, Peter Chen, a psychology professor at Colorado
State University, and a soon to be hired computer and security analyst – is to improve security,
its members have to think like "the bad guys," said Warner. "We
are adversarial vulnerability specialists; we focus on being the bad guys."
Ross Anderson, a University
of Cambridge professor of security research, said
this about the VAT: "The most impressive physical security research team
in the world is probably Roger Johnston's Vulnerability Assessment Team at
Los Alamos." Indeed, the team has 10 U.S. patents, two R&D 100 awards,
and was awarded Popular Science magazine's "Best of What's New Award," the
LANL Fellows Prize for Outstanding Research, and the LANL Achievement Awards
in 2007, 2004, 1999 and 1995.
Past VAT sponsors include the International
Atomic Energy Agency, EURATOM,
the U.S. Departments of Energy, State and Defense,
the DOE's National
Nuclear Security Administration, intelligence agencies and private companies.
In addition to its own research, the team hosts The
Journal of Physical Security,
a peer-reviewed scientific journal on physical security and the only known
one of its kind, Johnston said.
Argonne National Laboratory brings
the world's brightest scientists and engineers together to find exciting and
creative new solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology.
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic
and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne
researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities,
and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific
problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for
a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed
by UChicago
Argonne, LLC for
the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office
of Science.
For more information, please contact Angela Hardin (630/252-5501
or ahardin@anl.gov) at Argonne.
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