OR Forum – Homeland security: From mathematical models to policy implementation: The 2008 Philip McCord Morse Lecture

This paper is the archival record of the INFORMS Philip McCord Morse Lecture delivered in 2008. It describes the author's research on four topics in homeland security and public health: preparedness and response to a bioterror anthrax attack, preparedness and response to a bioterror attack on the food supply, routes of transmission and infection control for pandemic influenza, and biometrics (e.g., fingerprint matching) to prevent terrorists from entering the country. The paper focuses on the modeling, policy recommendations, and implementation of these recommendations. The author draws lessons about policy implementation from these examples and from examples from his other homeland security work with colleagues, including a bioterror smallpox attack, preventing nuclear weapons from entering the country on a shipping container, preventing nuclear weapons from entering a city, and preventing terrorists from crossing the border between the United States and Mexico.