Hi, everyone. My name is james matheny, the new ceo and president of the Rand Corporation. A nonprofit nonpartisan Research Organization committed to the public good. This is my first public event in my new role and i am grateful that its on biodefense. This is probably the topic i lost the most sleep over the last 20 years. I expect i will be losing more sleep tonight but but i thit will be worth it. The covid 19 pendant has shown a devastating impact can be due to a moderate pandemic, and we can imagine the impact of biological threats that are either here or on the horizon that have more thann a 1 infection the county rate. The biological threats that are enabled by advances and Synthetic Biology make possible to design pathogens that are evenre more severe, that are evn more deadly than what we find in nature. The capabilities are accessible not just to state biological weapons programs that unfortunately persist today but also to individuals. To help us understand the threats we f
Sleep tonight, but i think it will be worth it. The covid19 pandemic has shown the devastating impact can be due to a moderate pandemic. And we can imagine the impact of biological threat here or in the horizons that have more than a 1 fatality rate. The biological threats that are enabled by advances and Synthetic Biology is make possible to design pathogens that are even more severe, even more deadly than what we find in nature and the capabilities are accessible not just to state and biological weapon programs that unfortunately persist today but also to individuals. To help us understand the threat we face and what we can do about them, we are fortunate to have two congressional leaders on National Security issues and the distinguished panel of experts including one of my mentors on the topic for 15 years. Im honored to first welcome that distinguished guests, representative mike turner that represents the tenth Congressional District in southwestern ohio which includes dayton and
Preparedness and emerging bio threats from other nations. Nonstate actors and natural causes. They also talk about the role of government partnerships with the private sector and International Communities as well as intergovernmental coordination. Im the ceo and president of the Rand Corporation a nonprofit and nonpartisan Research Organization committed to the public good. This is my first public event in my new role and i am grateful that its the topic that id lost the most sleep over the last 20 years. I expect i will be losing more sleep tonight, but i think it will be worth it. The covid19 pandemic has shown the devastating impact can be due to a moderate pandemic. And we can imagine the impact of biological threat here or in the horizons that have more than a 1 fatality rate. The biological threats that are enabled by advances and Synthetic Biology is make possible to design pathogens that are even more severe, even more deadly than what we find in nature and the capabilities are