Epstein Gerald L
Biosecur Bioterror. 2009 Dec;7(4):357-64. doi: 10.1089/bsp.2009.1201.
Over his entire career, Gerald Epstein has toiled at the nexus of science, technology, and security. From 2003 to 2009, he was Senior Fellow for Science and Security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Homeland Security Program, where he worked on reducing biological weapons threats, improving national preparedness, and easing potential tensions between the scientific research and national security communities. Epstein came to CSIS from the Institute for Defense Analyses. From 1996 to 2001, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. And from 1983 to 1989, and again from 1991 until its demise in 1995, Epstein worked at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, where he directed a study on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, alongside research on other global security topics. A recognized expert in biological risk reduction, Epstein was actually trained as a physicist, having received SB degrees in physics and electrical engineering from MIT, and a PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. How, then, did he come to study the evolving threat from bioterrorism? "What compelled me about bioterrorism was that it was a stellar example of a topic that would lead to a train wreck between the scientific community and the security community unless they figured out how to work together," he said. "The distance between a laboratory and a very large consequence event is a lot shorter in biology than in any other field. I got into bioterrorism to help make sure that the security community doesn't get so scared of the science that it shuts it down, and that the science community isn't so oblivious of security concerns that it pays no attention to them." Epstein spoke on November 6, 2009, with contributing writer Madeline Drexler, author of Emerging Epidemics: The Menace of New Infections (Penguin, 2009), an updated version of an earlier volume. Drexler holds a visiting appointment at the Harvard School of Public Health and is a senior fellow at Brandeis University's Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism.
在其整个职业生涯中,杰拉尔德·爱泼斯坦一直在科学、技术与安全的交叉领域辛勤耕耘。2003年至2009年,他是战略与国际研究中心国土安全项目的科学与安全高级研究员,在那里他致力于减少生物武器威胁、提高国家防范能力以及缓解科研界与国家安全界之间的潜在紧张关系。爱泼斯坦从国防分析研究所来到战略与国际研究中心。1996年至2001年,他在白宫科学与技术政策办公室任职。1983年至1989年,以及1991年至1995年该办公室解散前,爱泼斯坦在国会技术评估办公室工作,在那里他主导了一项关于大规模杀伤性武器扩散的研究,同时还进行了其他全球安全主题的研究。作为生物风险降低领域公认的专家,爱泼斯坦实际上接受的是物理学家的训练,他在麻省理工学院获得了物理学和电气工程理学学士学位,并在加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校获得了物理学博士学位。那么,他是如何开始研究生物恐怖主义不断演变的威胁的呢?他说:“生物恐怖主义吸引我的地方在于,它是一个典型例子,说明如果科学界和安全界不弄清楚如何合作,这个话题将导致两界之间的严重冲突。生物学领域中,从实验室到产生重大后果事件的距离比其他任何领域都短得多。我投身生物恐怖主义研究,是为了确保安全界不会因害怕科学而将其拒之门外,同时科学界也不会对安全问题视而不见。”2009年11月6日,爱泼斯坦与特约撰稿人玛德琳·德雷克斯勒进行了交谈,后者是《新出现的流行病:新感染的威胁》(企鹅出版社,2009年)的作者,该书是早期版本的更新版。德雷克斯勒在哈佛公共卫生学院担任客座职务,是布兰迪斯大学舒斯特调查新闻学研究所的高级研究员。