Adam Samuels, Preventing Outbreaks of Anthrax, Ebola...and Zombies
About the program and speaker:
Join MBC as Adam shares personal sea-stories of how scientific innovation, military strategy, and multi-agency, international collaboration can be effectively leveraged to reduce biological threats at home and build partnerships on a global scale.
After the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, the global community faced a serious threat from the unsecured remnants of the USSR’s CBRN arsenal. Although the Cold War had ended, vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons, chemical agents, and biological warfare infrastructure remained scattered across newly formed nations. Additionally, the potential for unemployed Soviet scientists to be exploited by hostile actors raised fears of proliferation. In response, U.S. Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar launched the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program—a bipartisan initiative empowering the Department of Defense to work with partners in the new countries to dismantle or neutralize WMD threats. Following the 2003 SARS outbreak, which demonstrated the rapid global spread of infectious diseases, the CTR program mission was expanded to include bio-surveillance, bio-safety, and bio-security collaboration with partner countries, particularly in managing high-risk pathogens known as Select Agents.
LCDR Adam Samuels, on Joint assignment to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP), played a vital role in implementing these biosecurity goals. Over four years, he led projects to enhance disease surveillance and reporting systems in countries such as Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, and Tanzania. In South Africa, he helped initiate a DTRA-funded multi-study research collaboration to reduce risk of outbreaks of mosquito-borne Rift Valley Fever... such as partnering NASA with the South Africa Space Agency analysts to use satellite imagery as a predictive tool to locate potential mosquito reservoirs.
Agenda:
6:45am - Coffee & Networking
7:10am - Breakfast Buffet
7:25am - Introductions & Announcements
7:50am - Speaker Introduction
8:20am - Q&A
8:30am - Leave inspired or curious!
