August Brown Bag -- Nuclear Security Panel Discussion 

You are cordially invited to attend our next INS Brown Bag.  A Faculty Panel will discuss "Global Issues in Nuclear Security - Looking Ahead to the Next Decade".

Panelists include:

• Dr. Brandon Prins, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee.
• Dr. Howard Hall, Director of the INS and Governor's Chair Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee. 
• Dr. R Bruce Williamson, Senior Economist at the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security.

Dr. Matthew Murray, Director of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, will moderate the discussion.

This event is free and open to the public.

 

Dr. Prins is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee. He is currently Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science and Global Security Fellow at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, where he assists in the development of programming and cur­ricula for the Baker Center’s Global Security Program.

Professor Prins’ research interests include:

• Conflict processes, particularly the causes and consequences of violent conflict among nation-states in the international system.
• Theoretical models of international poli­tics, such as the deterrence theory, arms race dynamics, models of signaling and bargaining, democratic peace, rivalry, di­versionary processes, and conflict resolu­tion.
• The role played by domestic-political insti­tutions in affecting leader decisions to use military force, particularly in democratic countries.
• In the United States, the relationship be­tween Congress and the President in di­recting and implementing foreign policy, including the use of force, foreign aid, and military interventions.

Professor Prins received his Ph.D. in Political Sci­ence from Michigan State University in 1999; his MA in Political Science from Michigan State University in 1995; and his BA in His­tory and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994.

Prior to joining UT, Dr. Prins spent 4 years in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University, where he taught undergradu­ate and graduate courses on conflict processes and U.S. foreign policy.

Professor Prins is a member of the American Political Science Association, the Internation­al Studies Association, and the Peace Science Society (International). He also is an Editorial Board Member for the journal Foreign Policy Analysis and currently is Chair of the Scien­tific Study of International Processes Section of the International Studies Association.

 

Dr. Hall is the Director of the UT Institute for Nuclear Security. He is appointed as the UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Gover­nor’s Chair Professor of Nuclear Security, and serves as faculty in both the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the Bredesen Center For Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education. Dr. Hall is also a Senior Fellow in Global Security Policy at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, where he directs the Baker Center’s Global Security Programs.

Professor Hall’s research interests include:

• Nuclear forensics, particularly develop­ing faster and more reliable radioanalyti­cal processes, and developing a better un­derstanding of the physical, chemical, and nuclear processes underlying nuclear fo­rensics for reducing uncertainty in the in­terpretation of forensic data.
• Nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry, novel separation methods, the evolution of trace material signatures, isotope produc­tion and purification research, and physi­cal/chemical properties of isotopes.
• Radiation detection and measurement as applied to security-relevant needs, partic­ularly the performance of “systems of sys­tems” against radioactive threats.
• Nuclear security policy in the interface be­tween technology, policy and legal frame­works, including treaty verification and arms control, counterterrorism, and nucle­ar nonproliferation.

Professor Hall received his Ph.D. in Nuclear and Radiochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989; and his BS in Chemistry from the College of Charleston in 1985.

Prior to joining UT, Dr. Hall spent more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he led major scientific and operational missions in nuclear and homeland security. During his tenure at LLNL, Dr. Hall led efforts supporting US Government pro­grams in nuclear security applications, avia­tion safety and security, nuclear threat detec­tion and nuclear emergency response.

Professor Hall is a member of the American Nuclear Society, the American Physical Soci­ety, the American Chemical Society, the Amer­ican Society for Engineering Education, the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

 

Dr. R Bruce Williamson is Senior Economist at the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security, part of the Sen. Howard Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at UT.  His work in defense and national security economics includes comparative analyses of major defense acquisition program cost, schedule and performance, the use of public-private partnerships in modernizing the national nuclear security infrastructure, and improvements to human reliability testing in highly secure environments.  He also lectures in predictive business analytics with the Center for Executive Education (CEE) unit at the UT College of Business Administration.

Dr Williamson has worked in national labs and US and international corporations over the past 36 years, in market and industrial base studies, energy and telecommunications networks, consumer expenditure, business modeling, valuations of foreign companies and markets for international mergers, and economic analyses of defense acquisition and healthcare in the US.  He has designed and managed multi-year global research projects for corporations in more than 30 countries.  His focus is on providing excellent insights from quantitative modeling.

Dr Williamson holds a BA from Cornell University in American Foreign Policy and Government, a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Korbel School of International Relations, and a PhD in Economics from the University of New Mexico.  An active Rotarian, he serves the Rotary District in East Tennessee with assistance in design, foreign partner selection, development and management of major humanitarian grants for developing countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

  

Dr. Murray holds a joint appointment with the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) and the Department of Eco­nomics at The University of Tennessee, Knox­ville.

He holds a PhD in Economics from Syracuse University, an MA from Syracuse University, and a BA from the University of Northern Iowa.

He is curently responsible for implementing the mission and vision of the Baker Center. He served as Department Head of Economics from 1997 to 2002 and Director of Graduate Studies from 2002 to 2007. Dr. Murray is a member of the National Tax Association and the American Economic Association.

Dr. Murray’s work in CBER includes main­tenance of the state econometric forecasting model that supports the annual Economic Re­port to the Governor and the quarterly Ten­nessee Business and Economic Outlook.

He also does short-term and long-term eco­nomic forecasting for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Dr. Murray has worked closely with state and local governments on a wide range of public policy issues including economic development incentives, economic/fiscal impact analysis, tax policy analysis, education reform and out­comes assessment, and transportation infra­structure finance.

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