Nunn School Assistant Professor Margaret E. Kosal spoke on the intersecting roles and influences of emerging technology and national security at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2014 Forum on Science and Technology Policy. Held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center last week in Washington, D.C., the event also featured speakers from across the US Government, industry, and non-governmental organizations.

Kosal was invited to speak on the potential strategic values of emerging technologies – nanotechnology, biotechnology, the cognitive neurosciences, additive manufacturing, and advanced analytics, aka ‘Big Data’ – and how these technologies may affect conflict and cooperation. She highlighted some of the identifiable technical (material & knowledge), structural (organizational), & political (ideational) factors in understanding how new technologies may impact security, as well as how they interact. She also discussed challenges and new approaches to governance – domestically & internationally – of dual use technologies and contentious research.

The annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy is the conference for those interested in public policy issues facing the science, engineering, and higher education communities. Since 1976, it has been a leading event to explore current issues and what is likely to happen in the coming year on the federal budget and the growing number of policy issues that affect researchers and their institutions. Other speakers included Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; and Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Member, U.S. House of Representatives (OR-1); and Dr. Jason Lee, National Intelligence Officer for Science and Technology-based Threats at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Full agenda of the event is available here. 

Working at the intersection of science and security, Dr. Margaret Kosal is among the foremost experts on the weapons of mass destruction and the national security implications of emerging and dual-use technologies; such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and the cognitive neurosciences. She earned a doctoral degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and has served previously in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and as an advisor to the Chief of Staff of the US Army as part of his Strategic Studies Group (SSG). Her book Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense(Springer Academic Publishers, 2009) explores scenarios and strategies regarding the benefits and potential proliferation threats of nanotechnology and other emerging sciences for national security.