A Mission-Driven Career: Solving National Security Challenges in Biodefense

Dr. Rachel Bartholomew is a Senior Research Scientist and Technical Team Lead in the Global Security, Technology, and Policy Group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She has ~20 years of experience applying molecular biology to address challenges related to national security, policy and non-proliferation. She has led projects for a variety of sponsors ranging from the Department of Homeland Security, Energy, State, and Defense on topics ranging from the development and testing biological agent characterization methods and testing to serving as a biological subject matter expert supporting training on the awareness, interdiction, and mitigation of low-technology threats on public transportation for international partners.  Rachel is responsible for compiling the annual Biological Weapons Convention Confidence Building Measures for PNNL. She has recent publications in synthetic biology supply chain, a novel tool for US biodefense policy analysis and visualization  (www.bplat.pnnl.gov), and the evaluation of current off the shelf agent detection kits. She received her B.A. in Biology from Case Western Reserve University and Ph.D. in Animal Physiology from Cornell University, where she was a National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow. Her post-doctoral training was completed at the FBI Laboratory Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit.  Please join Rachel in discussing opportunities beyond academia, including programs run by or at US government laboratories for post-masters, doctoral, and permeant positions following graduation.

This seminar series is only possible because of generous support from the UW Departments of:

Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Biomedical Informatics & Medical Education, Genome Sciences, Microbiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, Physiology and Biophysics, the Office of Research and Graduate Education, the Cell and Molecular Biology Training Grant, the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, the Graduate Program in Neurobiology & Behavior, and the Graduate School. Thank You!