As the world continues to battle the novel coronavirus that leads to COVID-19, it is a stark reminder of the devastation biological threats can cause. And while this ongoing pandemic arose naturally, it reinforces the grave threat biological weapons still pose to international security and stability.
The Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) is developing creative solutions that could help end this threat. As part of this work, CSR hosts a Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs. In this one-year program, Fellows work with leading experts from CSR’s team and network to generate ideas for ending the threat of state biological weapons programs.
Together, the CSR team collaborates with the Fellows to explore wide-ranging ideas that governments, nonprofits, or other private organizations could pursue for addressing bioweapons threats. The Fellows work to deepen our understanding of motivations for bioweapons programs, and foster creative ideas and options for the use of technologies, international cooperation, and engagement of non-traditional actors for the purpose of reducing biological weapons risks.
Class of 2022-2023
Nathan Calvin recently graduated from Stanford Law School with a joint degree in law and public policy. In the fall, Nathan will be working as a science and technology policy legislative fellow in the US Senate. He previously worked on emerging technology policy with Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, the Open Philanthropy Project, and the Stanford Existential Risk Initiative. Nathan hopes to use his experience with the CSR fellowship to advocate for policy to reduce the risk of catastrophe from biological threats.
Carly S. Cox is a Research Staff Member at the Science and Technology Policy Institute, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center established by Congress to support the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Carly’s background is in biology, which she uses to support OSTP on a variety of topics, including those related to pandemic preparedness and biosafety and biosecurity. Carly is also interested in biotechnology and synthetic biology-related topics. Prior to joining STPI, Carly was a Civic Engagement Project Manager and Science Policy Fellow at Research!America, a not-for-profit health advocacy organization. Carly received her PhD and MS degrees at Yale University in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, where she conducted research in the prevention of age-related diseases. Carly received a BS from the University of Georgia in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She is excited to use the knowledge she will gain from the fellowship to contribute to policy discussions focused on eliminating the development and use of bioweapons.
Sophie Rose is a lead biosecurity policy manager at the Center for Long Term Resilience in London where she focuses on mitigating catastrophic risks that may arise from a range of biological threats such as pandemics or deliberately-released/engineered pathogens. She received her MHS in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her BS in Human Biology from Stanford University. She has previously worked on biosurveillance and early warning systems research under Dr. Emily Gurley and co-led a pandemic preparedness advocacy organization. Most recently, she worked as a research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, where she contributed to the 2021 edition of the Global Health Security (GHS) Index and led an analysis of countries’ preparedness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jonas Sandbrink is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine and a biosecurity researcher at the Future of Humanity Institute. His research focuses on mitigating the misuse of emerging biotechnologies and implications for pandemic preparedness. Previously, Jonas has worked as a consultant for the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Global Biological Policy and Programs team. Prior to shifting his research towards biotechnology risks, he researched platform vaccine technologies and infectious disease epidemiology. Jonas was part of the winning team of the 2020 Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Medical Sciences from the University of Oxford.
Zach Shaw is a National Security Legislative Aide in the United States Senate, an Officer in the United States Army Reserve, and a part-time student in Georgetown University’s Joint J.D.-Master’s in Security Studies program. Previously, he served on active duty leading the development of a cyber software application. Prior to activating, Zach worked in business development at two start-ups—one fighting phone fraud and the other securing artificial intelligence, led a light cavalry platoon in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, and volunteered at Samaritan’s of New York’s 24-hour suicide hotline. Zach is a proud husband, Pittsburgher, and Giving What We Can member and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with a Certificate in Computer Science from Princeton University.
Kent Twardock is currently a Director at the United States International Development Finance Corporation, an agency of the federal government, on their Defense Production Act team, where since 2020 he has been working with private companies to conduct due diligence and structure government loans to fund the development of pandemic-related domestic manufacturing facilities. Previously, he worked as a product manager and consultant at Novantas (now Curinos) in New York, where for 6 years he advised financial institutions on network strategy, analytics, and mergers and acquisitions. He also worked at Fiddler AI to conduct research and develop business and marketing strategy for Fiddler’s AI transparency and monitoring technology. He graduated with honors with a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and he holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from Yale University.
Class of 2021-2022
Lt Nicolette Chimato
Jonathan Frist
Daniel Gastfried
Anjali Gopal
Dr. Jaspreet Pannu
Class of 2020-2021
Chris Bakerlee
Dr. Steph Guerra
Dr. Damien Soghoian
Jacob Swett