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Originally published on September 16, 2020
A series of video podcasts that examines emerging topics in the fields of alternative energy, climate change, and critical infrastructure protection, among other issues, represents a collaboration between Schar School of Policy and Government researchers and colleagues from other Mason programs, as well as experts from outside the university.
The HDIAC Podcast is available at the Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center website. The program is funded by the Department of Defense.
“George Mason University and the Schar School have a well-known reputation for research done in a variety of areas,” said Distinguished Visiting Professor Richard Kauzlarich, one of the series’ producers. “Nowhere is this more visible than in the public policy dimension of climate change, sustainability and resilience, and renewable energy…These podcasts were prepared to address critical infrastructure protection and other emerging topics of interest to the defense and homeland security communities.”
Mason became one of 120 Research 1 Universities in 2017, a designation of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning. The Schar School is in the Top 20 best public policy research schools in the country, and No. 2 for research in the Washington, D.C., region, according to Zurich-based ranking service SpringerLink.
The video podcasts highlight Mason professors’ expertise as well as those from the Schar School and experts from other institutions, Kauzlarich said. He was joined by George Mason University Professor Andrew Light for a discussion called “Geopolitics of Climate Change: Why India and China Matter for U.S. National Security.” Schar School research assistant professor Tonya Thornton interviewed Mason’s J.P. Auffret and Paul Houser in a conversation about “The Intersection of Energy Security and Resilience.”
Schar School professor David Hart, director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, and Dorothy Robyn, a non-resident senior fellow at Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy, discussed with Kauzlarich the relationship between battery development and national security. HDIAC technical analyst Amber Garvey interviewed Thornton about “Disaster Emergency Response & Recovery.”