Alan Foley to head national security programs at Argonne

ARGONNE, Ill. (March 16, 2004) — Alan A. Foley has been named associate laboratory director for national security at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

Foley most recently was director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Center for Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control. He was associated with the CIA for 26 years, and has held positions including serving as chief of the Arms Control Intelligence Staff and as senior member of the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (SALT) from 1987 to 1990.

Foley was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal for “exceptional performance, leadership and professionalism” in 2001. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Tufts University, a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and was a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellow at Moscow and Leningrad State Universities.

In his new role at Argonne, Foley will head the laboratory's $40 million research effort in national security programs. Argonne researchers are providing scientific and technical support to assist the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and other public agencies in accomplishing their mission to reduce threats to national security.

Argonne's research and development program includes three major components:

• Nuclear non-proliferation, treaty verification, arms control, and counter-terrorism technology. This effort includes initiatives to research and test reactor security, reactor fuel safety projects, nuclear materials monitoring activities, and nuclear security training. In support of these efforts, Argonne is equipped to perform nuclear-related field and laboratory measurements, radiation dose estimations, decontamination, emergency construction, radioactive materials handlings, nuclear risk management and nuclear threat attribution.
• Domestic infrastructure assurance. This effort includes vulnerability assessments focused on physical, operational and cyber security, and the interdependencies of such critical infrastructures as electrical, natural gas, transportation and telecommunication systems. Under the sponsorship of DOE and DHS, Argonne is actively engaged in activities that aim to increase the emergency preparedness and security awareness of infrastructure owners and operators and their host communities and states.
• Chemical and biological counter-terrorism science and technology. Argonne capabilities include instruments and sensors for detection of chemical and biological agents in the air, water, and soil, whether dispersed over a wide area or hidden within sites and caches. Facilities are also available for evaluating the effectiveness of monitoring methods at both the laboratory and field scales. The Laboratory can provide technical assistance in emergency situations and deploy fast-response systems for protecting first responders, decreasing exposure times, estimating population exposures, and reducing risk.

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Catherine Foster (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.