JOIN us at the SMITHSON Dinner Seminar

To reserve a seat at the Smithson dinner talk, please register here on or before November 15th. Seats are limited, so please let me know if your plans change. Registration will close automatically when all seats are filled.  If  this should occur, email the coordinator at pumphrey@duke.edu and she will notify you if there are any cancellations.  

Germ Gambits 

Dr. Amy Smithson, a UNC alum with a Ph.D. from George Washingon University,  is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Non Poliferation Studies (Washington DC office).  She chairs the Global Affairs Council on Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons for the World Economic Forum. Her area of expertize is in chemical and biological weapons proliferation and threat reduction mechanisms. Before joining CNS, Ms. Smithson worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Henry L. Stimson Center, where in January 1993 she founded the latter's Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project to serve as an information clearinghouse, watchdog, and problem-solver regarding chemical and biological weapons issues. Previously, she worked for Pacific-Sierra Research Corporation and the Center for Naval Analyses. Dr. Smithson has appeared frequently before Congress and in the electronic and print media.

 Her most recent book, Germ Gambits: The Bioweapons Dilemma, Iraq and Behond (2011) examines the verification work done by a small UN inspection corp in 1995.  Despite the lack of official inspection measures to back the 1975 weapons ban, and despite Iraqis' extensive concealment and deception measures, the team was able to expose the bioweapon agent production. On November 19th, 2012 Dr. Smithson will discuss the challenges posed by biological weaons and consider how the biological weapons risks can be reduced in future.

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