On Science Policy IRL, we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. Most of the people we’ve interviewed work in the legislative branch of the federal government or in agencies in the executive branch. In this installment, we’re going to an unexpected place for science policy: the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Host Lisa Margonelli is joined by Edward You, who has been called “America’s Top Bioterror Cop” by MIT Technology Review. A biochemist by training, You worked for the FBI for over 20 years. At the FBI, he served in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, and was also on joint duty assignment at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he served as the National Counterintelligence Officer for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies. In this episode, Margonelli and You discuss how his time as an FBI agent enabled him to reframe the way the policymakers understand what is required to protect biosecurity and support innovation.

Resources: 

Watch a 60 Minutes episode on DNA and the big-money market for biodata, featuring Edward You. 

Read “National and Transnational Security Implications of Big Data in the Life Sciences” (2014), a joint report from the FBI, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute. 

Learn more about big data, security, and the FBI’s role by reading “Biosecurity in the age of Big Data: A Conversation With the FBI”. 

Check out Issues’s recent publications on biosecurity: 

• Interview with Senator Todd Young on emerging biotechnologies.

• “Reconsidering Research Security” by John C. Gannon, Richard Meserve, and Maria T. Zuber. 

• “When All Research Is Dual Use” by Sam Weiss Evans.