The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy of Thomas Hadley CSU Interim President Tony Frank, left, shakes the hand of President of Japanese National Institute of Radiological Sciences Dr. Yoshiharu Yonekura, after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between their respective institutes on Nov. 18 in Tokyo, Japan.

Following an announcement made by a Congress-established panel this week - one which predicted a major terrorist attack by the year 2013 - CSU will collaborate with Japan's Gifu University to propose the formation of a food emergency network, a university professor said Thursday.

The panel reported that the attack could take place anywhere in the world and will likely involve a biological weapon of mass destruction rather than a nuclear one.

"The product and food chain is really world-wide now," said Bill Hanneman, Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences professor. "(Biological attacks) can come in many different forms, and one of the ways that they can come is through the food chain obviously."

Citing the trip that took himself, Interim CSU President Tony Frank and a team of CSU deans and professors to China and Japan last month, Hanneman said strengthened cross-culture bonds could allow the universities access to funding for the potential global food protection network.

"We have formed these partnerships, and now we can ask funding agencies and individual organizations to put credibility and put resources into those (partnerships)," he said.

"So, if there are agricultural accidents or if there are issues with products (of suspect) coming into the United States … then we can engage in those."

Hanneman said the food network proposal, for which the CSU team said they would soon seek national funding, is just one of the most important offshoots of CSU's collaborations overseas.

The projects stemming from the trip - which include a soon-to-be-established Center for Environmental Medicine, the addition of university offices to facilitate foreign exchange and an agreement to create a joint Ph.D. program with China's Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research - give students hands-on skills to complement their already-established intellectual capabilities, Hanneman said.

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