Abt Associates Names Rocco Casagrande Director In New Homeland Defense Practice.Business Editors CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2003 Former U.N. Weapons Inspector To Develop Practice Focused On Bioterror Defense And Health Systems Preparedness Abt Associates Inc. announced that Rocco Casagrande has been named a Director in its new Homeland Defense practice. Casagrande, who was most recently a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, will focus on building the Company's Homeland Defense program with an emphasis on bioterrorism defense, including agricultural biosecurity and public health preparedness. "Rocco's knowledge and experience in biosurveillance and the biological threat area complement our existing expertise in health and make him a very good fit with our Homeland Defense efforts that focus on improving the capacity of public health systems to prevent and respond to terrorist attack," said Joan Mullen, Group Vice President for Domestic Social and Economic Policy. Prior to his role as a weapons inspector, Casagrande was a scientist at Surface Logix, Inc., where he was responsible for developing and testing detection platforms for biological warfare biological warfare, employment in war of microorganisms to injure or destroy people, animals, or crops; also called germ or bacteriological warfare. Limited attempts have been made in the past to spread disease among the enemy; e.g. agents. He has been widely published on the subjects of agricultural and biological terrorism Noun 1. biological terrorism - terrorism using the weapons of biological warfare bioterrorism act of terrorism, terrorism, terrorist act - the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are and is a prominent lecturer on these subjects. He has been a researcher for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (or DTRA) is a combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) whose primary function is to analyze potential threats to the United States, both homeland and abroad, and provide contingency plans for all such and was a member of the Controlling Dangerous Pathogens Project at the Center for International and Security Studies. Casagrande is a graduate of Cornell University Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of land. With the help of state senator Andrew D. with degrees in Chemistry and Biology, and holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, . Abt Associates (www.abtassoc.com) is a private, employee-owned company that applies rigorous research and consulting techniques, as well as technical assistance expertise, to a wide range of issues in social and economic policy, international development, business research and consulting, and clinical trials and registries. Since its founding in 1965, Abt Associates has provided services to U.S. federal, state and local governments; foreign governments; international organizations; foundations; and business and industry. Its staff of over 1,000 employees is located in offices in Cambridge, Lexington, and Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. At the 2000 census, the population was 34,874. The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, three of the Five Colleges. ; and offices in Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda is an urbanized, but unincorporated, area in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, just Northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a church located there, the Bethesda Presbyterian Church, built in 1820 and rebuilt in 1850, which in turn took its name from ; Washington, D.C.; Old Greenwich, Connecticut; Chicago, Illinois; Cairo, Egypt; and Pretoria, South Africa. For more information, contact Peter Broderick, Abt Associates Corporate Communications, (617) 349-2882, peter_broderick@abtassoc.com, or Maureen Bailey at BCI BCI Bat Conservation International BCI Brain-Computer Interface BCI Business Continuity Institute BCI Business Cycle Indicators BCI Banco de Credito e Inversiones (Chilean bank) BCI Bell Canada International , (617) 557-0011, mbailey@bci-pr.com |
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