MSU Secures $529M DOE Funding to Extend Rare Isotope Research
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MSU Secures $529M DOE Funding to Extend Rare Isotope Research

The Department of Energy‘s Office of Science has awarded $529 million in funding to Michigan State University to continue nuclear science research at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, MSUToday reported Friday.

Under the five-year cooperative agreement, FRIB will serve as a user facility for DOE-SC to study the properties and fundamental interactions of rare isotopes and nuclear astrophysics and their applications in medicine, homeland security and industry.

FRIB has provided over 200 rare isotope beams for experiments and supported over 500 participants worldwide, including scientists from colleges, universities and national laboratories, since user facility operation commenced in May 2022.

The facility also supports chip testing for advanced semiconductor devices, the harvesting of unused isotopes for use in several fields of study and the development of new technologies for other industries and applications.

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National Institutes of Health Names Jeanne Marrazzo NIAID Director
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National Institutes of Health Names Jeanne Marrazzo NIAID Director

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been chosen to lead the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Her appointment to the NIAID director post will take effect in the fall, and she will succeed NIAID Acting Director Dr. Hugh Auchincloss, who stepped into the role after Dr. Anthony Fauci’s departure in December, the National Institutes of Health said Wednesday.

Marrazzo’s early career experience includes time as a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

She was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Physicians in 1996, and became chair of the Subspecialty Board on Infectious Disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2012.

Marrazzo is a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and a specialist in HIV and the human microbiome. The Lesbian/Bisexual Women’s Health Study, which she co-founded, was noticed and funded by NIAID.

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CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein Discusses Cybersecurity Strategic Plan for 2024-2026
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CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein Discusses Cybersecurity Strategic Plan for 2024-2026

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released its Fiscal Year 2024-2026 Cybersecurity Strategic Plan, which will assemble government and industry players, both within and outside the United States, to implement foundational shifts in IT protection in the nation.

In a blog post published last week, Eric Goldstein, CISA’s executive assistant director of cybersecurity, discussed the strategy, which centers three main goals: addressing immediate threats, bolstering security resilience and treating Internet-based defense as a national safety issue.

To mitigate urgent threats, CISA will intensify efforts to study how attacks really occur, as well as coordinate information sharing and crackdown on threats. It will also refine metrics to measure the efficacy of tools and other investments for cybersecurity, and build a specialized workforce to patrol existing and emerging technologies.

“Ultimately, cybersecurity is a whole of CISA, whole of government, whole of nation mission. It takes every one of us to contribute to our individual and societal security,” Goldstein wrote.

“Through our shared efforts, we believe 2023 can be an inflection point when we shift the arc of national risk to create a safer future for generations to come,” he stated.

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Defense Logistics Agency Elevates Adarryl Roberts to CIO
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Defense Logistics Agency Elevates Adarryl Roberts to CIO

Adarryl Roberts has been elevated from program executive officer to chief information officer at the Defense Logistics Agency, according to a LinkedIn post on Sunday.

Roberts has been with the DLA for over a decade, beginning as a portfolio manager for enterprise sourcing, medical and contingency in 2012.

As PEO, he oversaw the major automated information systems and special interest programs of the DLA. Prior to taking on the PEO role, he was director of the agency’s Business Systems Center of Excellence.

In his first position with the DLA, Roberts spent three years overseeing 14 program managers that served the Department of Defense and DLA’s enterprise programs focused on procurement, finance and equipment management.

Roberts has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. He earned Acquisition Management Level III and Acquisition Contracting Level III certifications at the Defense Acquisition University.

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PSC Shares Insights With CMS on Labor Harmony Clauses in Contact Center Operations Contracts
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PSC Shares Insights With CMS on Labor Harmony Clauses in Contact Center Operations Contracts

The Professional Services Council has submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services its feedback on a request for information on the potential inclusion of a labor harmony clause in future contracts for contact center operations.

PSC said in a letter dated Tuesday it believes the inclusion of a labor harmony agreement “would likely result in requests for employment conditions that would make it difficult for any contractor to fulfill the stated performance goals of the CCO contract.”

According to the council, such agreements seek to prevent the risk of boycott, work stoppage or picketing that could interfere with the contractor’s operations and are common in shipping and construction contracts.

PSC noted that CMS would face difficulties in assessing labor harmony clauses as part of the process for evaluating proposals “because each has a different cost and technical impact to the contract.”

The inclusion of such clauses in CCO contracts would result in unnecessary government interference with contractual agreements in the private sector, impose cost on employees who may not receive any benefit, discriminate against vendors based on labor affiliation and may impact small businesses.

“In light of the concerns outlined in this letter, PSC respectfully submits that a mandatory labor harmony clause would not benefit CMS and would directly contradict its interests due to the unique requirements of CCO work,” Krista Sweet, vice president of civilian agencies at PSC, wrote in the letter to CMS.

“If CMS wants to ensure greater pay and benefits for CCO workers, it can leverage the power of the federal government to directly increase the wage determination for these jobs, a goal which PSC strongly supports,” she added.

EPA Identifies Product & Service Categories for Federal Purchasing Ecolabel Program
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EPA Identifies Product & Service Categories for Federal Purchasing Ecolabel Program

The Environmental Protection Agency has listed five categories under consideration to be added to its Recommendations of Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing.

Food service ware, healthcare, laboratories, professional services and uniforms and clothing were named as the new product and service categories to be included in the expanded recommendations, which aid in the identification of environmentally preferable goods for government procurement, EPA said Tuesday.

In November, the agency announced plans to expand the recommendations to comply with the Biden administration’s federal sustainability policies and initiatives.

The standards and ecolabels that will pass assessments and be included in the recommendations will be finalized later this year. EPA said it will add more categories when it has sufficient resources.

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New FCC Inquiry Seeks Public Comment on Radio Spectrum Usage; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted
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New FCC Inquiry Seeks Public Comment on Radio Spectrum Usage; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Inquiry into radio spectrum usage in non-federal sectors.

The agency announced Thursday that the investigation will help deepen its understanding of the benefits, limitations and feasibility of spectrum utilization and management as commercial spectrum bands increasingly become congested.

FCC normally uses third parties to collect spectrum usage data. The new inquiry will gather insights from industry, government, academia and international entities with expertise in spectrum research.

The notice is inviting feedback on best practices and technical parameters relevant to the study of spectrum usage. FCC is also interested in learning about band-specific, service-specific and operational considerations surrounding the technology.

“I believe we can do more to increase our understanding of spectrum utilization and support the development of AI tools in wireless networks. That is what today’s inquiry is all about,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “I look forward to the record that develops because I believe if we do this right, we can help turn spectrum scarcity into abundance.”

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US, International Partners Release Advisory on Addressing Common Exploited Vulnerabilities 
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US, International Partners Release Advisory on Addressing Common Exploited Vulnerabilities 

Cybersecurity agencies from the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. are urging organizations to prioritize implementing secure-by-design practices and patching common vulnerabilities and exposures to reduce the risk of compromise by malicious cyber actors.

In a joint advisory, the agencies provided details on CVEs routinely and frequently exploited by threat actors in 2022 to compromise organizations and outlined common weakness enumerations associated with the vulnerabilities, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Thursday.

Technology vendors, designers and developers are recommended to implement secure design practices throughout the entire software development life cycle and establish a coordinated vulnerability disclosure program.

“With our partners, we urge all organizations to review our joint advisory, for every enterprise to prioritize mitigation of these vulnerabilities, and for every technology provider to take accountability for the security outcomes of their customers by reducing the prevalence of these vulnerabilities by design,” said Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA.

Air Force Research Lab Develops AI Agents to Fly Kratos-Manufactured Valkyrie Drone
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Air Force Research Lab Develops AI Agents to Fly Kratos-Manufactured Valkyrie Drone

The Air Force Research Laboratory has developed and tested artificial intelligence software to fly an XQ-58A Valkyrie, an unmanned air vehicle manufactured by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, as part of the Autonomous Aircraft Experimentation program.

AFRL test units carried out a three-hour sortie at the Eglin Test and Training Complex in Florida to assess the machine learning-trained AI algorithms developed by the Autonomous Air Combat Operations team, the laboratory said Wednesday.

The AI/ML algorithms took millions of hours to mature in simulation during sorties on the X-62 VISTA, hardware-in-the-loop events with the XQ-58A and ground test operations.

“AI, Autonomous Operations, and Human-Machine Teaming continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace and we need the coordinated efforts of our government, academia, and industry partners to keep pace,” said Brig. Gen. Scott Cain, commander of AFRL.

The test flight builds on four years of partnership with the Skyborg Vanguard initiative.

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Antony Blinken: State Department to Advance Global Health Security via New Bureau
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Antony Blinken: State Department to Advance Global Health Security via New Bureau

The State Department has launched a new bureau to help strengthen the global health security architecture as part of efforts to detect, control, respond to and prevent HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

John Nkengasong will oversee the bureau of global health security and diplomacy as ambassador-at-large and directly report to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Nkengasong will also serve as U.S. global AIDS coordinator and senior bureau official for global health security and diplomacy.

Blinken, a previous Wash100 awardee, said in a statement published Tuesday the new bureau will strengthen policies and systems, promote international cooperation, tap resources and personnel from various offices and coordinate U.S. foreign assistance to protect the global community against health threats.

“This new Bureau will seamlessly integrate global health security as a core component of U.S. national security and foreign policy, underscoring the Department of State’s commitment to advancing human health worldwide,” Blinken added.

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