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Students & alumni enhancing transportation security through work at labs and DHS Centers

Profiles of 5 students & alumni

(April 3, 2007)

Audrey Martin - 2004 DHS Fellow - Recently hired by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Martin (at left) is completing her Ph.D. in chemistry at Michigan State University. Her research uses Single Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (SPAMS). Having been tested against household items as well as explosive, biological and chemical substances that a terrorist might try to sneak onto an airplane or into a public venue, SPAMS can analyze elements as small as particles of dust to determine their content.

Lindsay Heger – START student – Seeking to understand connections between politics and terrorist groups trends in selecting certain targets, Heger, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California, San Diego, and a member of the START Center, is exploring how the type of political power targeted by a terrorist group can influence their target choice. Aspects of her research look at the influence of counter-measures on groups' targeting strategies, and how groups' decision to pursue political ends may influence the type of violence used in an attack.

Tony Cinson – 2004 DHS Scholar alumnus - A post-bachelor’s appointee at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Cinson (at left) earned his bachelor’s degree in physics in May 2006 from Wheeling Jesuit University. Cinson supports the Product Acoustic Signature System (PASS) team. PASS is a device that measures a liquid’s sound velocity to validate the type of liquid in a container and detect hidden items or spaces in a container. He determines the sound velocities of many different liquids and files them in a database.

Steve Morris – NCFPD student – A Ph.D. candidate in Industrial Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Morris cites research that indicates a lack of secure parking facilities for truck drivers transporting food long distances across the U.S. Challenges being answered by Morris’ research include how best to create and where to locate rest facilities, as well as solving the operational challenge trucking companies might experience in lost driver time due to mandatory rest at secure facilities.

Susan Fahey – START student - A criminology and criminal justice Ph.D. candidate at Maryland and participant in the START Center, Fahey (at left) studies the characteristics that distinguish aerial hijackings for terroristim purposes from other types of hijackings. Most non-terrorist hijackings are to travel to a destination or to extort money. Of 940 hijackings from 1948 to 1996, 108 were terrorist-related. Terrorist hijackings are more strongly motivated by publicity to achieve political, social, economic or religious goals.