Limiting the spread weapons of mass destruction, safeguarding dangerous materials, controlling advanced delivery systems, protecting information systems, combating terrorism, and sustaining critical natural resources are among the subjects to be covered over the next three years at Georgia Tech under a new fellowship program funded by a $1.3 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to help bring a new generation of scientific and engineering expertise to bear on these critical security issues.

The grant enables the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech to create a structured fellowship for young and mid-career scientists, computer scientists and engineers to study the challenging field of international security policy in the 21st century. Social scientists with expertise in the formulation, execution and teaching of security policy and recognized national security scientists will act as faculty to the fellows.

"Georgia Tech is already one of the nation's leading universities in research related to Homeland Security," said G. Wayne Clough, president, Georgia Institute of Technology. "This significant grant from the prestigious MacArthur Foundation will allow us to capitalize on our expertise and extend the reach of our research and instruction."

"We are very excited about the opportunities this grant gives us to serve as a bridge between international policy and technology studies and research," said William Long, chair, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. "We are in excellent company in this program and will be working hard to recruit the best and the brightest scientists, computer scientists and engineers to join our program."

Selected fellows will receive useful exposure to national security subjects through weekly seminars, professional field trips, research projects and a two-week summer workshop. Participants will also have the opportunity to showcase their research under the MacArthur program fellowship in Washington and at a forum held at Georgia Tech in 2004.

Participants will be recruited nationally at the mid-career, post-doctoral and pre-doctoral levels from computer science, sciences and engineering. Georgia Tech is committed to sustain this program beyond the three-year grant and will add a faculty member to the Sam Nunn School for a jointly appointed associate professor with either the College of Computing, Science or Engineering to direct and coordinate the program to meet this critical national need.

Co-principal investigators are John Endicott, professor of international affairs and director, Center of International Strategy, Technology and Policy, and Seymour Goodman, professor, jointly appointed to the Sam Nunn School and the College of Computing. Endicott is a leader in developing a Nuclear Free Zone in northeast Asia, and former Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Associate Dean of the National War College and Director of American Defense Policy at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Goodman co-directs the Georgia Tech Information Security Center and former director of the program for research on information security and policy at Stanford University.

Other lead faculty include: William Hoehn, visiting professor of international affairs, and former senior staff member, Senate Armed Services Committee and Pentagon Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense; Robert Kennedy, professor of international affairs, and former director of the Marshall Center in Germany and faculty member, Army War College; Senator Sam Nunn, distinguished professor of international affairs, and others.

"The faculty leading the program bring incredible depth of knowledge and real-world experience to the issues related to national and international security," said Endicott. "We feel the participants will benefit greatly from their fellowship experiences."

"The fellows will benefit from a complete mentoring environment and have opportunities for extensive peer interaction and long-term professional bonding," said Goodman. "This experience will give mid-career and young scientists and technical experts a strong understanding of the issues and help them better understand how to best apply their specialized technological knowledge."

The nine other schools receiving grants under the Foundation's Peace and Security Program are Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Harvard, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Stanford, and King's College London.

Potential applicants may contact the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs for more information at 404-894-3195 or email william.long@inta.gatech.edu or john.endicott@inta.gatech.edu.