Mentor/Facilitator Bios
Dr. Susanna Gordon
Facilitator, Strategic-Planning Exercise
Dr. Gordon is the technical lead for the development of the 2012 Sandia Summer Institute and will colead the planned scenario planning activity with Dr. Michael Nacht. Dr. Gordon is the manager of the Systems Analytics Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. The department, which resides within Sandia's Computer Sciences and Information Systems Center, applies computer science, engineering, and systems analysis approaches to enhance our nation's security, with an emphasis on problems that address cyber security or use computer science and engineering to address other types of threats. A growing research focus is on evaluating cyber-security threats and mitigation approaches, including technical, policy, economic, social, and legal considerations, and developing analytical and science-based methods to prioritize investments in operationally effective cyber-security mitigation options and in research and development of next-generation technologies.
Prior to this position, Dr. Gordon spent two years as the deputy to the director of Homeland Security Programs, helping to manage Sandia's homeland security portfolio, which includes chemical and biological defense, aviation and explosives security, radiation and nuclear security, border security, critical infrastructure security, and cyber defense. From 2004 to 2008, she was the manager of the Systems Studies Department, which encompassed diverse systems analysis activities in support of homeland security and defense missions, including the analysis of chemical and biological defense systems and detection requirements for urban environments and high-priority facilities. From 1993 to 2004, Dr. Gordon was a systems analyst in the same group and was project manager of demonstration programs focused on protecting airports and their occupants from biological and chemical attacks.
Dr. Gordon holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in physics from Cornell University.
Dr. Yalin Hu
Mentor, Trusted Digital Systems Designed with Field-Programmable Gate Arrays
Dr. Hu is a principal member of the technical staff in the Cyber-Physical Systems Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. Her research interests include the design and verification of trusted digital systems. Dr. Hu has a special focus on systems based on field-programmable gate array (FPGA) devices.
During her decade-long career at Altera Corporation, the leader in FPGA industry, Dr. Hu led the team that developed simulation models for generations of FPGA devices. She also initiated the effort at Altera to improve simulation performance and the model development process. With this extensive industrial experience, Dr. Hu is currently leading Sandia's effort in the functional verification of embedded designs that are based on FPGAs.
Dr. Hu has a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of South Carolina. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science and engineering from the Northwestern Polytechnic University in China.
Mr. Michael M. Johnson
Mentor, Assured Sharing: Post-WikiLeaks Era Tensions in National-Security Information Sharing and Safeguarding
As the chief scientist within the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Mr. Johnson focuses on strategic national-security information-sharing and safeguarding challenges that span intelligence and law enforcement. In his previous roles at DHS, Mr. Johnson led the U.S. Intelligence Community's information-sharing transformation to create decision advantage, securely providing all levels of the U.S. government and international partners with useful, timely intelligence.
Mr. Johnson's home organization is Sandia National Laboratories. As a senior scientist at Sandia, Mr. Johnson served as a computer engineer, an intelligence analyst, and a manager of national-security systems analyses. Mr. Johnson holds patents in weapons of mass destruction (WMD) detection, communication, and decision support systems. He also has technical and program leadership experience spanning computer architecture; software frameworks; systems engineering and integration; nuclear weapons; cyber and physical security; information operations; policy development; intelligence analysis; and the mitigation of WMD/weapons of mass effect and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives. Mr. Johnson has extensive police officer training at the state level and remains actively involved as a commissioned officer in local law enforcement in California.
Mr. Johnson has a master's degree in computer science and engineering, with a specialization in parallel and distributed simulation, embedded systems, and network protocol design.
Dr. Philip Kegelmeyer
Mentor, Information Analytics for Cyber Security
Dr. Kegelmeyer is a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. He recently served as the principal investigator for the Network Discovery, Characterization, and Prediction Grand Challenge (NGC), a three-year-long internal research-and-development project with 40 part-time staff members. Prior to the NGC, Dr. Kegelmeyer led the Advanced Simulation Computing Data Discovery Program, which was devoted to search in — and characterization of — petascale scientific simulation data.
With more than 20 years of experience in inventing, tinkering with, and quantitatively improving supervised machine-learning algorithms, Dr. Kegelmeyer's research efforts include published and continuing investigations into accurate and statistically significantly comparisons of such algorithms. His work has resulted in more than 50 refereed publications, two patents, and commercial software licenses. Dr. Kegelmeyer's recent research interests involve the analysis of social and communication networks, as well as supervised learning in text.
Dr. Kegelmeyer has a master's degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He also has a bachelor's degree from Duke University.
Dr. Michael Nacht
Facilitator, Strategic-Planning Exercise
Dr. Nacht is the Thomas and Alison Schneider Professor of Public Policy at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. He specializes in U.S. national-security policy and management strategies for complex organizations.
From 2009 to 2010, Dr. Nacht served as the assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs. In this role, he helped develop cyber policies for U.S. Cybercommand and was engaged in cyber security consultations with allied governments and senior representatives of major U.S. corporations. Dr. Nacht also helped develop the Nuclear Posture and Ballistic Defense Reviews, the National Space Strategy, and methods to counter weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation.
Dr. Nacht began his career as a NASA missile aerodynamicist during the manned space program. He later served as a management consultant in the private sector and then was successively a faculty member at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and dean of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. He is the author or coauthor of five books and 70 articles and book chapters, most covering U.S. national security.
Dr. Nacht has a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. He also received a bachelor's degree in aeronautics and astronautics and a master's degree in operations research from New York University.
Mr. Evan D. Wolff
Mentor, Public-Private Sector Responsibilities and Legal Issues in Our Nation's Cyber Defense
Mr. Wolff is a member of the Sandia External Advisory Board on Homeland Security and is a partner at Hunton & Williams, LLP. His practice focuses on homeland security, chemical facility security regulation, cyber security, and critical infrastructure. Mr. Wolff is also an adjunct professor in homeland security law at the George Mason University School of Law.
Before entering private practice, Mr. Wolff served as the senior advisor to the assistant secretary of infrastructure protection of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and held several other key positions. His distinctive background also includes roles as general counsel and senior geospatial analyst for ISciences LLC, vice president and principal of Environmental Protection International, and senior geologist at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Mr. Wolff was named a “Homeland Security Professional to Watch” in The Year in Homeland Security, 2009 edition. He sits on many advisory boards and is a frequent speaker on issues related to homeland security, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), and infrastructure protection.
Mr. Wolff holds a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, a master's degree in geology from Northern Arizona University, and a bachelor's degree in geology and education from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is admitted to practice law in Maryland and Washington, D.C.