President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Dimitri Kusnezov, a scientist and Energy Department official helping with international partnerships on artificial intelligence at the department, to head the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. Kathryn Coulter Mitchell is the current acting under secretary for S&T at DHS. Kusnezov, a theoretical scientist, currently works in the DoE Office of Science on creating international partnerships in AI. He previously was the deputy under secretary for artificial intelligence and technology at DoE, leading efforts to drive the use of AI and machine learning across the department’s core missions.
The Department of Homeland Security
Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office is canceling its Request for Proposals to establish a single-award contract for Radioisotope Identification Devices (RIIDs), saying that none of the devices proposed were able to meet the minimum requirements as specified in the RFP. RIIDs are handheld devices used in primary and secondary security screening to find radiological and nuclear material in a small area.
The Transportation Security Administration plans to award contracts over the next year to four breeders including Auburn Univ., Aspen Creek Kennels, Elite Detection and Katalyst Kennels for basic explosive detection canines that have been reared and trained in accordance with the Domestic Breeding Consortium standards established by the Department of Homeland Security and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. TSA says the contracts will address the requirements of its Canine Training Center to provide a proof of concept and a significant first step in establishing a broader network of domestic breeding collaborators and breeders using research-based rearing and socialization strategies that are expected to increase quality and acceptance rates of working canines for the agency.