Richard Stouder of ORNL's Global Security Directorate says representatives of various government levels will discuss ways to protect against bioterrorism and also how to deal with an attack should it occur.
"We're going to look at everything from local to state to the federal levels to find out how to effectively collaborate and communicate all of the information required to deal with bio surveillance," Stouder said prior to his departure for Washington.
Stouder added there is much to learn in dealing with potential bioterrorism threats.
"The questions we deal with include what is the kind of information necessary for a decision maker in the presence of some kind of a threat," Stouder said. "This would include answering questions such as when to evacuate a city or a stadium. These pieces of information are not developed and this conference will set the tone to help develop answers to those questions."
Stouder said the conference will be the most comprehensive held in the United States to date to deal with bioterrorism.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science. DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://energy.gov/science/