The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is pleased to announce that Dr. Alan M. Pearson has been appointed as the Director of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program at the Center. Most recently, Dr. Pearson has been a Global Security Science and Technology Fellow at the Department of Homeland Security, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. At the Department of Homeland Security Dr. Pearson served as an advisor to the Biological and Chemical Countermeasures Portfolio in the Science and Technology Directorate. Previously, Dr. Pearson was a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Medical School and a post-doctoral Research Fellow of the American Cancer Society. Dr. Pearson received his Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The new Program on Biological and Chemical Weapons Control, including the American Scientists Working Group on Biological and Chemical Weapons, is being established to advance the Center’s efforts to protect the American people from the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The Program will work to strengthen controls over chemical and biological weapons programs, strengthen the norm against biological weapons, and broaden the norm to encompass all misuse of biology for hostile purposes.