Dr. Anders Ringbom is a Research Director in the field of nuclear verification techniques at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). He is a technical advisor to the Swedish Government, and a Swedish representative in Working Group B at the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna. He was the former manager for the Swedish National Data Center (NDC) for CTBT monitoring. He develops equipment, analysis techniques, and software for radioxenon detection used by CTBTO as well as by various national institutions. He is the developer of the noble gas system SAUNA used worldwide for monitoring nuclear tests.

Ms. Diane Tiong is a final year PhD student from Nanyang Technological University working on Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in Uranium analysis. She graduated from Nanyang Technological University in Chemistry from School of physical and mathematical sciences (B.Sc and M.S.c). Her M.S.c work focused on ambient airborne particulate matter and precipitation monitoring in Singapore using ICP-MS, while her B.S.c final year project was based on organic chemistry focusing on green chemistry methodology.

Dr. James Riches is a Technical Expert in Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), United Kingdom. He studied Chemistry at Brunel University (BSc) and The University of Birmingham (PhD) where he studied engine deposits and emissions using mass spectrometry. He joined Dstl’s predecessor organisation in 1994 and worked on monitoring submarine atmospheres with chemical sensors and chromatographic techniques and fire science (detection and suppression). He moved to Dstl Porton Down in 2001 and worked on the analysis of chemical warfare agents and their environmental and biological transformation products. He was the Team Leader of Analytical Chemistry (2008-2011) and Leader of the UK’s OPCW Designated Laboratory (2006-2013). More recently he has focused on attribution science particularly with respect to emerging threat chemicals. James has been awarded three Ministry of Defence Commendations for chemical analysis that has supported operations.

Dr. Hemström is a senior scientist at the Division for CBRN Defence and Security at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI. Dr. Hemström has a PhD in analytical chemistry from Umeå University (with secondment at UC Berkeley) focusing on stationary phase development for Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography (HILIC). During his PhD and later while working for HILIC pioneering start-up SeQuant AB he is an established proponent of HILIC by co-authoring a very extensively sited review article in 2006.

After joining FOI in 2014 Dr. Hemström has worked on numerous projects but the main focus has been on High Resolution Mass Spectrometry-Liquid Chromatography for verification analysis of chemical warfare agents, related chemicals and their biomarkers. A recent interest is lipid analysis, much of his effort has been focused on implementation of nano-LC/HRMS and “lipidomic” work-flows for finding biomarkers of chlorine gas exposure, an area that has experienced large attention in the scientific area due to the ongoing conflict in Syria.

Dr. Cédric Invernizzi is the Head of Arms Control Biology and Deputy Head of Biology Division, Spiez Laboratory, Federal Office of Civil Protection, Federal Department of Defence Civil Protection and Sports, Switzerland. He joined Spiez Laboratory in 2009 and is concerned with arms control issues related to biological weapons and dual use. He supports the Swiss delegations to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the Australia Group with technical expertise, including monitoring of relevant developments in science & technology, such as the convergence of biology and chemistry. He is concerned with national contributions geared towards enhancing the operationalization of the designated laboratories of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Mechanism for Investigations of Alleged Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons. He is quality management representative of the testing laboratory for the detection of biological agents that is accredited by the Swiss Accreditation Service.Cédric graduated with an M.Sc. in chemistry and completed his Ph.D. studies in biochemistry at the University of Bern. In 2004, he pursued research in virology, immunology and epidemiology at McGill University in Montréal, Canada.

Col. Dr. Eric Valade is currently head of the department of transmissible agents as well as head of the unit of bacteriology at the Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute. His areas of expertise covers Bacteriology (including high pathogenic bacteria, multi drug resistance and virulence), Biosafety and biosecurity, Virology, as well as Medical countermeasures. Dr. Valade also heads the French National Reference Centres for anthrax, melioidosis and glanders. In addition, he serves as advisor to the Surgeon General of the French Military Health Service in the area of biomedical defence against biological risk. Dr. Valade is also deputy head of the first mixed unit research of the ministry of defense as well as referent of biosecurity for the French Ebola crisis response.

Ms. Vidhya Novem is currently a Senior Member of Technical Staff at the Chemical, Toxin, Radiological, and Nuclear (CTRN) Program in DSO National Laboratories, and is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the Toxin Verification capability since 2014. During her research stint in DSO National Laboratories in the early years (2003-2010), Vidhya worked in multiple research areas including protein toxin characterization and the enhancement of host innate immunity for medical protection. Between 2010 and 2014, Vidhya was seconded to the Future Systems and Technology Directorate (FSTD), at Ministry of Defence, Singapore. At FSTD, she was the Programme Manager overseeing the Bio, Chem and Radiological R&T portfolio.

Dr. Simon Ovenden joined DST Group in May 2006 as a Defence Scientist within what is now known as the Agent Chemistry & Verification Team. With extensive experience in mass spectrometry and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, he applies these skills across a multitude of different research programs. In particular, he has focussed on the determination of the attribution of ricin in addition to OPCW Proficiency Tests and general analytical chemistry method development. Most recently Dr. Ovenden was awarded a Chief Defence Scientist Fellowship where he is studying the human metabolome to gain a better understanding of the biochemical pathways involved in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Dr. Sanjiv Shah is a microbiologist with National Homeland Security Research Center, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He is leading research on biothreat detection from environmental and water samples. Since 1998, he has been actively contributing to the biodefense research, especially, in the development of analytical methods, and development, and test and evaluation of biosensors technologies for rapid, specific, sensitive, and high-throughput detection of biothreat agents. He is a member of many interagency biodefense/homeland security expert panels, committees, and work groups. He has biodefense research collaborations with CDC, and National Laboratories.He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology. While working for industries and premier research institutions such as the NIH, University of Maryland Medical School, Edgewood Chemical Biological Center of the U.S. Army, and the U.S. EPA-NHSRC, he has enriched his basic and applied research experience in molecular biology, molecular neurobiology, antibiotic fermentation technology, and biodefense. He has published his research in several international journals and reports.

Mr. Joseph Wood is a senior research engineer with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Homeland Security Research Center. He has been with the US EPA since 1991, and has been leading research in the NHSRC’s Decontamination and Consequence Management Division since 2004. His current research focuses primarily on the development, testing and evaluation of technologies for the decontamination of materials contaminated with biological agents. He is the primary author or co-author for over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and over 60 US EPA published reports. He holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and is a licensed professional engineer. He is the recipient of numerous EPA awards, is Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) Certified, and is a member of the American Society of Microbiology.

Dr. Vipin Rastogi is working as a Senior Research Biologist with the US Army-ECBC at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, in Maryland, USA. ECBC is a premier Chemical-Biological Defense research center, serving the war-fighter by providing with innovative solutions to the challenges faced in the event of exposure to CB threat materials. By training, Dr. Rastogi is a molecular microbiologist/biochemist with over 20 years of experience in CB Defence research. Dr. Rastogi is responsible for leading CB Defence research programs specifically in the areas of CB Detection and Decontamination. Dr. Rastogi holds over ten patents and has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Rastogi is also regarded as a subject-matter expert in the areas of BW sampling, BW decontamination, wide-are decontamination, and characterization of pathogenic strains of highly infectious BW agents.

Dr. Hiroshi Kurikami received the Ph.D degree in civil engineering from Kyoto University, Japan, in 2003. He joined the department of geological isolation R&D in Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in 2003 and was engaged in field investigations and modeling studies on groundwater flow system for safety assessment. Immediately after the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011, he moved to the headquarters of Fukushima Partnership Operations that was newly established in JAEA and initiated researches for decontamination and radionuclide migration in environment.His talk is about the JAEA’s activities for environmental restoration against the Fukushima accident.

George W. Wagner, PhD, is a Research Chemist at U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, CBR Filtration Branch. Dr. Wagner began his career at ECBC as a National Research Council Research Associate in 1990 and has been working at ECBC ever since. He has been involved in the invention and development of solid-sorbent (M100, M295), liquid (Decon Green), and gaseous (mVHP) decontaminants for chemical warfare agents. Dr. Wagner continues working in the area of decontamination and filtration and is currently involved in developing improved reactive sorbents and filtration media, protective clothing, and personnel/skin decontaminants.

Ms. Karola Hagner works at the Bundeswehr Research Institute for Protective Technologies – NBC-Protection (WIS) in Munster, Germany since 1995. WIS is a research institution of the German Department of Defense, its work focusses on the protection against Weapons of Mass Destruction and their impacting components and furthermore, fire protection engineering, protection against strong electromagnetic fields and water purification. She is a senior executive in the department of Individual and Collective Protection and responsible for individual protective equipment (IPE). She is a telecommunications engineer and has an additional bachelor degree in military administration. She has worked in several stages of different IPE projects including project management, procurement and research. Her main research projects deal with future IPE solutions, especially with the optimization of the protective features and the reduction of the physiological strain for the wearer.

Mr. Benoit Chandesris graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, France, in 2012 and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, UK. He joined the French Procurement Agency in 2014 and became head of the CBRN Protection Department of DGA CBRN Defence. Since then, he has been working on a roadmap to redefine tests & evaluations in Protection. The confidence in tests results is crucial; hence the involvement of FRA in round robin of CBRN tests performed in different laboratories all over the world.

Dr. Vijay K. Singh is currently a tenured Professor at F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and a Principal Investigator at Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He is a well-recognized scientist in the area of Radiation Biology and serves as subject matter expert. His research interests have focused on the development of radiation countermeasures, understanding the mechanism of radiation injury, and identification of biomarkers for radiation injury and countermeasure’s efficacy. He is at above university for last 15 years. He has made significant contributions for developing several promising radiation countermeasures for acute radiation syndrome. He has published 133 peer reviewed research articles in high journals, 20 book chapters, and more than 215 abstracts. He is well-funded by various funding agencies of US Department of Defense and Health and Human Services. He has over 20 million $ projects over next four years.

Prof. François Trompier is currently working as a research engineer and expert in the field of external dosimetry for the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety. He is a well-recognized scientist in the area of Ionizing Radiation Dosimetry and serves as subject matter expert.

He was involved in the management of victims of radiological accidents for different institution (IAEA, French Nuclear Safety Authority, REACTS…) and has performed tens of expertise on dose reconstruction or estimation for those cases. Over the last ten years, his research interests have focused on the developments on new techniques or approaches for accident dosimetry, especially for large-scale radiological accident.

Bob Terbrueggen, Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of DxTerity Diagnostics, a molecular diagnostics company based in Los Angeles, California, USA. DxTerity specializes in the development of low cost, high throughput genomic tests. In September 2016, DxTerity was awarded a multi-year, $150 million contract by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, for the Advanced Development and Delivery of its REDI-Dx® High Throughput Radiation Biodosimetry Test.Prior to founding DxTerity, Bob was Director of Research and Development for Clinical Micro Sensors (CMS) and Motorola Life Sciences. Bob received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), and his BS in Chemistry and Molecular Biology for the University of Michigan. Bob is an inventor on 20 approved U.S. patents and more than 20 pending applications.

Dr. Loke Weng Keong received his graduate training in both Chemistry and Pharmacology at the National University of Singapore. He spent his last 22 years in defence research with DSO National Laboratories and is recognised as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. He is currently serving as the Programme Director for a bunch of wonderful folks researching on technological solutions to counter Chemical, Toxins, Radiological and Nuclear threats. He is actively involved in a number of national committees that includes the Advisory Committee to the National Environmental Agency on Radiation Protection and Nuclear Science, Operational Civil Emergency Joint Planning Staffing of the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Toxicology Advisory Team advising the Ministry of Health, Singapore. He is the co-editor for 1 book and co-author for 3 patents, 3 book chapters, 30 journal papers and 47 conference papers.

Dr. Fabian Leendertz is the Head of research unit “Epidemiology of Highly Pathogenic Microorganisms” at the Robert Koch-Institute Berlin, Germany. He is a veterinarian by training and is specialized on zoonotic diseases. Since 16 years, his main focus are pathogens transmitted between wild non-human primates (especially great apes) and humans. In addition he is investigating the role of rodents and bats as reservoirs for hemorrhagic fever viruses. His approach is multidisciplinary with close collaborations with ecologists, primatologists and medical doctors. All research activities are performed in close collaboration with long term partners from Central and West Africa. Most projects are strongly driven by the One Health concept which embraces human and animal health as well as environmental factors. His work on emerging diseases, including the newly described Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis, has been widely covered by the press.

Colonel (Dr) Chow Weien was enlisted into the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in 1997. He has a Masters of Medicine (Internal Medicine) and is a SAF Cardiologist.He served several key appointments in the SAF, which included Head Medical Doctrine & Training Branch, Head Naval Medical Operations Centre and Acting Commander Military Medicine Institute (MMI). As Commander MMI, he oversaw the operation of the SAF Medical Centres and pandemic preparedness plans.

COL(Dr) Chow is currently the Chief Naval Medical Officer (CNMO) and concurrent Commander Force Medical Protection Command (FMPC). As Commander FMPC, he oversees the operation of the SAF Biodefence Centre (BDFC). BDFC is in charge of developing and implementing the biodefence framework as well as providing comprehensive surveillance and response to infectious diseases in the SAF. Under his command also includes the Medical Response Force (MRF), which provides the medical response to CBRE threats.

Dr. Ayi Teck Choon did his graduate study at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, NUS, and his post-doctoral fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. He is currently employed in DSO National Laboratories as a Principal Member of Technical Staff, a role he has held since 2012. His interests lay in the development of molecular assays, microfluidic and biosensors to detect pathogens of military and public interests. He has several international publications and patents in the domains of cancer research, materials, virology and biomicrofluidics from his fruitful collaborations with other scientists and engineers from local universities.

Dr. Sarah Goodchild is a Principal Scientist at the Defence science and technology laboratory (Dstl), the Ministry of defence’s research establishment at Porton Down in the UK. She graduated with a PhD in molecular biology in 2004 and has extensive expertise in reagent development using in vitro selection tools in addition to exploitation of these reagents in novel diagnostic sensor platforms. She also has extended interests in to the utility of human generated signals (at the physical and molecular level) for early warning and reporting of exposure to hazardous materials. Dr. Goodchild is responsible for leadership of the technical delivery of the Diagnostics research programme at Dstl within her role as Project Technical Authority, which includes leading teams investigating the utility of novel assays for diagnosis of exposure of individuals to agents of interest to the UK armed forces.

Dr. Band is the Research Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Biochemistry, and Molecular Pharmacology in the NYU School of Medicine. He is widely acknowledged as an expert on osteoarthritis, the extracellular matrix, hyaluronan, synovial fluid and intra-articular injection therapies. Dr Band founded and directed the Clinical Research Center at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, and was a co-founder of the Joint Preservation and Arthritis Center. Dr. Band is also the Chief Executive Officer of CytoDel LLC, a biopharmaceutical company spun out of technology he co-developed at NYU. CytoDel has engineered recombinant derivatives of botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) to create therapeutic fusion proteins, designed to deliver single chain antibodies to the inside of neurons. CytoDel’s lead product, Cyto-111, is a countermeasure against weaponized BoNT, which uses a single chain antibody to inactivate BoNT that has entered neurons. Cyto-111 is the first drug ever to reverse symptoms of botulism in animals.

Dr. Zbynek Prokop is associate professor at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He leads research group engaged in protein engineering and biotechnology development. He obtained Ph.D. and associate professor appointment in environmental chemistry from Masaryk University in 2001 and 2011, respectively. He extended his expertise during research stays at University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, University of Groningen and University of Ghent. He received Werner von Siemens Award for Excellence in Innovation, Alfred Bader Prize for Bioorganic Chemistry, National Prize for Biochemistry and Excellence in Innovation Award. He is co-author of more than 60 scientific publications, four book chapters and five international patents in the field of protein engineering and industrial enzymology. He is co-founder of National Center for Biocatalysis and Biotransformations, of Enantis Ltd., a biotechnology spin-out company, and sits on the Advisory Board of Centre for Technology Transfer at Masaryk University.

Colonel (MC) Dr. Franz Worek is deputy head of the Bundeswehr Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Munich, Germany and adjunct professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. His research areas during the past 25 years were all aspects of medical defence against chemical warfare agents with focus on nerve agents.

Matthew Chang is Associate Professor in Biochemistry at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Program Director of NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI). His research interests lie in the development of biological systems that perform programmable functions. His work has received international recognition and is featured in leading media agencies worldwide. He has been honored with the Scientific and Technological Achievement Award from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He serves as an editor for Biotechnology for Biofuels, IET Synthetic Biology, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and Critical Reviews in Microbiology, and as an editorial board member for Biotechnology Journal and ACS Synthetic Biology. He serves on the international advisory panel of the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL), an open standard designed to facilitate the exchange and storage of genetic designs.

Dr. Brendon Hanson is a Biochemist by training and completed his PhD at La Trobe University in 1998 under the supervision of Prof Nick Hoogenraad studying the mechanism of protein trafficking into mitochondria. Dr. Hanson then came to Singapore with the plan to do a 3 year postdoc at IMCB and spent the next 6 years in the laboratory of Prof Hong Wanjin, once again studying trafficking but this time focusing on the endosome and the role sorting nexins play in this process. Having used antibodies as tools for his research from the beginning, it was only a short leap to make antibodies his main focus and in 2004, Dr. Hanson joined DSO National Laboratories to look at using recombinant antibody technologies to develop detection reagents. Shortly afterward, his focus shifted to therapeutic antibodies, and the selection of antibodies which could be used to treat pandemic influenza. In 2009, the Bio-Defence Therapeutics Lab was established where the focus is to develop technologies to allow rapid antibody development against emerging infectious diseases.

Dr. David Trudil is a founding member of the International Phage Research Center, a non for profit under MOA, in Nanjing, China and a Senior Advisor of the Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage in Georgia. A former US Army Chemical Officer, he also worked for Pfizer Inc, Becton Dickinson and consulted for the Battelle Memorial Institute.

Dave has over 35 years of experience with infectious diseases and Bio Defense. He has authored several issued and pending patents on the use of Phage Associated Enzyme and is included in over 30 other patents and over 50 articles related to phage lytic enzymes. His current projects also include humanized MAB and phage therapies as well as novel biocontrol control methods.

Dave attended the University of Wyoming, and earned his graduate degrees from St. John’s University in New York with further doctoral training at the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Poland.