Biographical Sketches of the U.S. National Research Council Planning Committee Members
Norman R. Augustine (National Academy of Sciences [NAS], National Academy of Engineering [NAE]), chair, is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of the Lockheed Martin Corporation and a former under secretary of the army. Augustine served as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Advisory Council. He chaired the NAS committee that authored the report Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. Among Augustine’s many honors are the National Medal of Technology and the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award, the Distinguished Service Medal, given to him five times. He was awarded the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Philip Hauge Abelson Prize and the 2006 Public Welfare Medal from NAS.
Augustine also served as chairman and principal officer of the American Red Cross for 9 years and as chairman of NAE, the Association of the United States Army, the Aerospace Industries Association, and the Defense Science Board. He is a former president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Boy Scouts of America. He is a current or former member of the Board of Directors of ConocoPhillips, Black and Decker, Procter & Gamble, and Lockheed Martin, and is a member of the board of trustees of Colonial Williamsburg, a trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins, and a former member of the board of trustees of Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds 18 honorary degrees. Augustine graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. He is the author of Augustine’s Travels, The Defense Revolution, and Augustine’s Laws.
Penrose (Parney) Albright was named the 11th director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), effective December 1, 2011. He is responsible for the management of the laboratory and also serves as the president of
Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. Albright has extensive experience in executive leadership, including policy direction, strategic planning, congressional and executive branch interactions, financial and personnel management of large mission-focused science and technology organizations, and research, development, testing, and evaluation of national security technologies and systems. Albright previously has served as the principal associate director for global security at LLNL.
Before arriving at LLNL, Albright was president of Civitas Group, LLC where he led projects to provide a net assessment of the nation’s biodefense enterprise and conduct critical analysis of the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review. The review created an analytic construct for setting priorities and making investment decisions that has been embraced by DHS leadership.
Prior to Civitas, Albright was confirmed by the Senate to the position of assistant secretary of DHS in 2003. His responsibilities included developing the multi-year strategic planning guidance and budget execution for the Science and Technology Directorate. This included new national efforts in radiological and nuclear security; biological, chemical, and explosives defense; boarder security, trade and travel facilitation; aviation, and other aspects of transportation security; national incident emergency response and consequence management; and critical infrastructure protection. Albright concurrently held the positions of senior director for research and development in the Office of Homeland Security and assistant director of homeland and national security within the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He was the lead official within the White House responsible for providing advice to the Executive Office of the President on science and technology issues surrounding homeland security, and on the threat of biological, nuclear, and chemical terrorism.
He previously worked at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where he developed and managed several programs associated with special operations, intelligence collection, molecular biology, communications, and maritime operations. He also worked as research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses on ballistic and cruise missile defense systems; space-based infrared and launch-detection systems; and weapons and sensor system design and analysis.
John Holmes is deputy executive director of operations at the Port of Los Angeles, and oversees the Port Police, Port Pilots, Emergency Preparedness, Wharfinger, and Homeland Security divisions at the number one container port in the nation. Holmes holds the ultimate responsibility for Port-related security and public safety issues. His divisions work cooperatively with associated government and law enforcement agencies to uphold maritime laws, enforce safety and security regulations, and continually test and enhance emergency response and
preparedness procedures to ensure the safety of the Port workforce and residents in the surrounding harbor communities.
Holmes has 30 years of international management experience in a variety of positions that include chief operating officer, Fortune 500 executive, senior-level Coast Guard officer, and maritime security specialist. He most recently served as a principal and chief operating officer of the Marsec Group, a full-service security consulting firm specializing in supply chain security, technology, and operations. Prior to forming the Marsec Group, Holmes was vice president and director of business development for Science Applications International Corporation, where he assisted government and commercial customers with the development of technological solutions to homeland security challenges, with an emphasis on port, border, and military solutions.
Holmes retired from the United States Coast Guard in 2003 following 27 years of distinguished service in a variety of posts that included commanding officer, Officer in charge of marine inspection and captain of the port for the Los Angeles—Long Beach Port Complex. As Captain of the Port, Holmes was at the helm on September 11, 2001, and has been credited with swift and decisive actions that ultimately led to the creation of a number of national security initiatives, including the Maritime Transportation Security Act, Area Maritime Security Committee, and National Sea Marshal Program.
Earlier in his Coast Guard career, he served as deputy chief of the Coast Guard Office of Congressional Affairs in Washington, D.C., and as delegate and committee chairman at the International Maritime Organization in London. Holmes holds bachelor’s degrees in English and education from Boston College, and a master’s degree in business administration from Washington University’s John M. Olin School of Business.
Nancy B. Jackson is manager of the International Chemical Threat Reduction Department in the Global Security Center at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), which assists the U.S. Department of State and other federal agencies in solving problems related to international chemical security. With the Department of State, Jackson has developed the Chemical Security Engagement Program (CSP), an international program to raise awareness of chemical safety and security among chemical professionals and to enable the practice of safety and security in the research, teaching, and commerce of chemicals. CSP has worked with universities and small and medium chemical companies in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Her group is responsible for encouraging the safe and secure practice of chemicals in an effort to prevent their misuse as weapons, poisons, explosives, or environmental pollutants. This includes providing training in laboratory safety, process safety, and physical security.
Previously, Jackson was deputy director of SNL’s International Security Program, where she assisted the director in fulfilling its mission to create technology-based solutions through international cooperation to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation and terrorism. Prior to her positions in global security, Jackson was a principal investigator in heterogeneous catalysis with an emphasis on energy applications. Later work involved chemical imaging with a wide variety of applications from biological systems to homeland defense problems.
Jackson is a national affiliate of NAS where she has served on several boards and chaired studies. She is a fellow of AAAS and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and was recipient of the 2005 American Indian Science and Engineering Society Professional of the Year Award. In 2009, she was elected to the presidential succession of the American Chemical Society. She served as president-elect for 2010, president for 2011, and immediate past president for 2012.
She is a research associate professor at the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department of the University of New Mexico. Jackson has a B.S. degree in chemistry from George Washington University from which she won a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 2005 and has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Randall S. Murch is the associate director, Research Development Team, National Capital Region at Virginia Tech. He is also a professor in practice in the School of Public and International Affairs and an adjunct professor in the department of plant pathology and physiology. He joined Virginia Tech in December 2004, where he develops research programs with special emphasis in topic areas in which science and technology, operations, law, policy, and security converge. Currently, his funded research activities are focused on advancing forensic science, biosecurity, and microbial forensics. He advises Ph.D. students in several graduate programs and teaches graduate courses in two programs. He has held a visiting professorship in the Science and Security Program in the department of war studies at King’s College, London, and is currently a visiting faculty member at the Institute for Investigative Genetics at the University of North Texas Health Center in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Following completion of his Ph.D. and brief service in the U.S. Army Reserve, Murch’s first career was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he was a Special Agent. In his early years with the FBI, he was assigned to the Indianapolis and Los Angeles Field Offices, where he performed counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and other investigations. During his career, he was assigned to the FBI laboratory as a forensic biologist, research scientist, department head, and deputy director at various times. While department head and deputy director, he was instrumental in leading the overhaul of the FBI laborato-
ry. Also while in the FBI, he created the bureau’s and United States’ WMD forensic investigative program, served as the FBI’s science advisor to the 1996 Olympic Games, led forensic investigative aspects of a number of domestic and international terrorism cases, and initiated a number of new and innovative programs for both the FBI laboratory and technical investigative program. Murch received his B.S. degree in biology from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, his M.S. degree in botanical sciences from the University of Hawaii, and his Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has published more than 40 scholarly papers, reports and chapters and has made numerous invited presentations as well as having testified in U.S. courts of law as an expert witness on more than 100 occasions.
Nancy Jo Nicholas has been a member of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) technical staff since 1990, and is the director of LANL’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Program Office. From June 2006 to June 2010, she served as the LANL Nuclear Nonproliferation Division Leader responsible for 250 people who executed a significant nonproliferation mission. Prior to that she headed LANL’s Nonproliferation and Security Technology Program Office, where she grew nuclear safeguards programs and helped place LANL personnel in key nonproliferation positions in Washington and Vienna. She previously served as deputy group leader for the LANL’s Advanced Nuclear Technology Group helping manage an operational Cat I nuclear facility. She has served several assignments at the International Safeguards Division at DOE/National Nuclear Security Administration Headquarters and at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site. Nicholas serves as vice chair of the Board of Directors and founding board member of WINS—the Vienna-based World Institute for Nuclear Security. She was elected and recently served a 2-year term as president of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management, the premiere international professional society for nonproliferation and safeguards. She has extensive experience in both line and program leadership. Her technical field of expertise is nondestructive assay measurements. Nicholas earned a B.S. in mathematics and physics from Albright College and an M.S. in nuclear physics from George Washington University.
George Perkovich is vice president for studies and director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on nuclear strategy and nonproliferation, with a concentration on South Asia, Iran, and the problem of justice in the international political economy. Perkovich is author of the award-winning book India’s Nuclear Bomb (University of California Press, 2001) and co-author of the Adelphi Paper “Abolishing Nuclear Weapons,” published in September 2008 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. This paper is the basis of the book Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: A Debate, which includes 17 critiques by 13 eminent international commentators. He also co-wrote a major Carnegie report entitled “Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security,” a blueprint for rethinking the
international nuclear-nonproliferation regime. The report offers a fresh approach to dealing with states, terrorists, nuclear weapons, and fissile materials to ensure global safety and security. He served as a speechwriter and foreign policy adviser to Senator Joe Biden from 1989 to1990. Perkovich is an adviser to the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ task force on U.S. nuclear policy. Perkovich holds a B.A. in politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz, an M.A. in Soviet Studies from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.
Stephen Philip Cohen, unpaid consultant, has been senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution since 1998. In 2004, he was named as one of the 500 most influential people in the field of foreign policy by the World Affairs Councils of America. Cohen was a faculty member at the University of Illinois from 1965 to 1998. From 1992 to 1993 he was scholar-in-residence at the Ford Foundation, New Delhi, and from 1985 to 1987, a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. Department of State, where he dealt with South Asia. He has taught at Andhra University (India) and Keio University (Tokyo), and Georgetown University, and now teaches in the South Asian program of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Cohen has served on numerous study groups examining Asia sponsored by the Asia Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Foundation, and the National Bureau of Asian Research. He is a trustee of the Public Education Center. Cohen was the co-founder and chair of the workshop on Security, Technology and Arms Control for younger South Asian and Chinese strategists, held for the past 10 years in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and China, and was a founding member of the Research Committee of the South Asian strategic organization the Regional Centre for Security Studies, Colombo. Cohen has written, co-authored, or edited 10 books. Cohen received B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin. He has conducted research in Britain, China, Britain, Japan, India, Pakistan, and the former Soviet Union, and Japan. He received grants from several major foundations and serves as a consultant to numerous government agencies.
