Homeland Security

With a strong record of multidisciplinary research between colleges, and an emphasis on emerging technologies coupled with dynamic public policy research, UK brings substantial expertise to bear on a broad range of research impacting homeland security. In August of 2005 UK received another round of funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—for six R&D projects totaling nearly $5 million. These projects range from protecting our milk supply from deliberate contamination during production, to a system that permits soldiers and police officers under fire to pinpoint a sniper’s nest, to technology that provides a nearly instantaneous fingerprint scan and record search.

UK researchers are aggressively exploring ways to rapidly identify—and respond to—the use of biological agents, examining reemerging threats such as bubonic and pneumonic plague, anthrax and smallpox, and developing vaccines and treatments.

Engineering professors at the UK Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments are developing 3-D face recognition and real-time palm print scanning, technologies that will help pinpoint potential threats. These researchers are also identifying the matrixes that will permit intelligent computerized tracking cameras to assist security personnel in keeping people safe in high-activity locales.

College of Ag researchers are developing technology to monitor milk production and protect our food supply from terrorist contamination.

Research at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) is focused on reducing the explosive potential of ammonium nitrate, the primary ingredient in the bombing of Oklahoma City’s Murrah Building in 1995.

UK scientists are working to make us safer at home and on the job, by creating new ways to protect ventilation systems in buildings and to provide first responders with breathing systems not vulnerable to terrorists’ aerosol agents.

UK is also developing programs to provide essential training, risk assessment and response- measurement tools to local officials in Kentucky as well as developing training programs focused on response to bioterrorism for hospital- and community-based pharmacists and rural health professionals.