Securing the Homeland
Through research and development, HBCUs are confident about competing for homeland security funds
By Ronald Roach

As a relative newcomer to the physics department at Florida A&M University, Dr. Lewis E. Johnson has managed to establish a laboratory for his research on laser remote sensing. While funding from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has helped furnish and support the laboratory since 2001, Johnson believes that his work merits the sponsorship of the federal government's newest agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Laser remote sensing is a process where lasers mounted at a fixed point can be projected upward into the atmosphere or into an open environment believed to have contaminated air and provide scientists a reading of chemical agents in the air. Such technology could save lives in the event of a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon attack, Johnson says.

"Chemical sensing at a distance makes it possible to avoid sending hazardous materials teams into areas that may have deadly agents in the air, thus potentially saving lives," Johnson says.

After less than a year of operation spent largely melding numerous agencies into one organization, a consolidated DHS is set to become a major player in basic and applied science, and technology research. Last year, it became the largest addition to the U.S. government since the establishment of the modern Department of Defense in 1947. The new department has brought together 22 different agencies under four DHS directorates and has more than 180,000 employees.

This year, the U.S. Congress is expected to approve more than $1 billion in homeland security research and development funding for fiscal year 2004. Roughly $800 million would be allocated to the DHS' science and technology directorate, which works with universities and businesses to study and develop technologies, based on House and Senate proposals. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, total federal government spending on homeland security research and development in fiscal 2003 is $669 million.