New York, N.Y. -- The events of Sept. 11, 2001 dramatically changed realities and priorities in the United States -- most notable being the rededication of keeping the nation's homeland safe and secure.
In the same city that bore the brunt of those terrorist attacks and became the epicenter of efforts to ensure that such attacks on the U.S. never happen again, Penn State's Board of Trustees yesterday (March 18) learned about the ways that the University, through its unique capabilities, is directly addressing and assisting with national homeland security and defense initiatives -- and is poised to continue such work well into the future.
"We believe that our technological capacity places Penn State in an excellent position to contribute to this national challenge," said Eva Pell, vice president for research and dean of the graduate school.
Pell and Edward Liszka, director of Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory (ARL), reported on the University's implementation of homeland security legislation and its research in support of national defense and anti-terrorism. They were joined by counterterrorism experts from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, who discussed broad implications of homeland security legislation and opportunities and issues it presents for higher education.
Of the University's $545 million in research expenditures last year, 56 percent of those funds were spent on federal grants and contracts. Of those funds, 38 percent originated with the Department of Defense -- ranking Penn State second nationally in defense contract expenditures. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are significant supporters of Penn State research, the latter having funded more than $71 million in research and education awards through the Marine Corps Research University since its creation at Penn State in 1999.
The potential for such critical research to continue at Penn State is high. The current Department of Homeland Security budget proposes $1.04 billion for science and technology development, including the establishment of up to a dozen University Centers of Excellence.
An additional $4.84 billion is proposed for emergency preparedness and response -- an area that will benefit from Penn State's broad reach across Pennsylvania - and $2.53 billion is earmarked for biodefense. Penn State has an active team of researchers in the College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the College of Medicine ready to focus on the latter priority, and inter-college collaborations between the ARL, Materials Research Laboratory, and Penn State Institutes of the Environment are working to develop chemical and biological radiation sensors.
Pell also outlined Penn State's contributions to homeland security outside of the research realm. In January 2003, the University was certified and enrolled in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Service (SEVIS), a federally mandated Internet-based system that provides users with access to accurate and current information on non-immigrant foreign students, exchange students and their dependents. In the last 14 months, Penn State's international students office has processed more than 10,000 such records.
"When fully operational, SEVIS will link colleges and universities authorized to admit and enroll foreign students with U.S. embassies and consulates, with U.S. ports of entry, with the Department of State and with exchange visitor programs," said Pell.
Other ongoing successes contributing to national defense include: a proposal to develop a national Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Food Safety; a $51 million contract awarded to Penn State from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to examine ways to prepare U.S. armed forces for -- and defend them from -- chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. In addition, Penn State took the lead in forming the Keystone Alliance for Homeland Security -- a collaborative defense research consortium with the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon University.
Liszka described for trustees the three-fold mission of the ARL: providing mass technology solutions for national defense needs, with specific emphasis in the naval area; applying new sciences and technology developed to meet some of the broader national goals such as homeland security, economic competitiveness and quality of life; and to contribute to Penn State's basic mission of teaching, research and service.
"We are looking at new materials that can be used in military applications to reduce the costs or improve performance," he said.
Significant ARL defense projects include the development of system to protect Navy ships and submarines from attacking torpedoes, and work on a monitor that can detect vibrations in the ground -- the type of system that might be deployed to monitor remote border areas.
Other projects include a Penn State concept that can inexpensively be deployed to make fences around facilities like airports more secure, and the development of underwater robots that might be used to protect U.S. naval vessels ships, perhaps providing a perimeter defense as they sit in port. Such a system might also be used to protect commercial ships.