Admiral Jay Cohen
The Search for Security
February / March 2007
Volume 5 Number 1
Jay Cohen, the new science and technology chief at the Department of Homeland Security, likes to describe himself as a "shade tree engineer." The self-deprecating description belies the retired rear admiral's master's degree from MIT, his accomplished naval career and, most recently, his unprecedented six-year stint as chief of naval research, perhaps the loftiest science and technology position in all the armed services.
Cohen brought his 32-year military career to an end in February 2006. But the government wasn't quite done with him yet. Ten days after he retired from the navy, the New York City native found himself informally nominated for a job as undersecretary of science and technology at DHS. In August 2006, he took the oath of that office.
It's a job Cohen clearly enjoys, and he manages to maintain a loose, jocular demeanor while discussing his dead-serious role as the chief selector of the science and technology that protects America.
Cohen met with Innovation Magazine in Washington last month and offered some insights into how he does his job, and what the Department of Homeland Security needs most from America's federal laboratories, universities and the private sector.
He said that luckily his last job as naval research chief provided him with exactly the kind of management experience required at DHS.
"I've turned in the gold stripe for the pinstripe, and that's about the extent of the transition I've gone through," Cohen said during an interview at the Washington Army-Navy Club, where he is a member. "The missions are very similar. The providers come from an almost identical gene pool and the customers are cross-cutting with defense."
In a nutshell, Cohen said he's responsible for "leveraging all other agencies of government to make the nation safer." And right now, he and his colleagues in the science and technology division at DHS are focusing on two critical risk factors.
"Clearly the two biggest threats to our safety are nuclear-radiological and chem-bio," Cohen said. "That would cause the greatest loss of life, material destruction and negative consequences to society and our way of life."
Cohen said DHS is willing to consider pretty much any serious new design proposal that claims to mitigate the risk or damage done by either. He said science and technology designed to counter chemical and biological attacks is moving faster than in the nuclear realm.
"Life there is counter-measure and counter-counter measure," Cohen said. "We know that in industry, many people are not focusing on patents anymore. It's time to market.
"Why struggle with the patent process when someone's going to take your lunch by getting it to market while you're protecting your intellectual property? It's going to change at three, six or nine-month intervals."
New technology to thwart nuclear dangers isn't as readily available.
"In nuclear-radiological, it appears the technologies are a little bit more staid and a little bit more stable on both the offense and defense," Cohen said. "Right now it's not clear what that waiting discovery will be."
He also said his team is constantly pushing for ways to improve interoperability—€”or communication and symbiosis among technologies. DHS is also keenly interested in anything that can mitigate, detect or destroy the improvised explosive devices that are decimating American soldiers in Iraq. He said with regard to IEDs, the department is "very much focused on the near-term deliverable" of new technology.
"Hope is not a strategy," Cohen noted. "You will see some money behind this because there is great interest on Capitol Hill."
As the DHS science and technology chief, Cohen oversees six different divisions under his directorate. They are:
—€ Explosives
—€ Chemical and biological,
—€ Border and maritime security
—€ Command, control and interoperabililty
—€ Human factors, which aims to improve detection and understanding of human threats
—€ Infrastructure/geophysical
"On a personal basis, I love all God's children," Cohen joked when asked which division he spends the most time, energy and resources on. But turning serious, he said: "Follow the money."
"Half my budget is chem-bio," Cohen said. "The Congress and administration have spoken with their checkbook and the American public appreciates the threat of a pandemic, so that should take about half my interest."
In 2006, science and technology accounted for $1.3 billion of the DHS's roughly $33 billion budget.
Of that $1.3 billion, Cohen said about 20 percent was spent on basic research at universities and national laboratories. Acquisitions and transitions gobbled up another 50 percent of his directorate's budget. "Innovation," which Cohen didn't fully describe, accounts for another 10 percent. And mandates from Congress or the White House consume the rest.
DHS doesn't have an in-house technology development arm, so Cohen leans heavily on the national laboratories when shopping for devices that can help mitigate the effects of a terror attack or a tornado.
"We don't do S&T," he said. "We resource and we manage S&T. I get to leverage everybody else. I don't have to reinvent them."
Cohen said he welcomes proposals from industry, and groused publicly that the DHS computer techies—€”or internet "gurus"—€”have not yet applied the DHS web site to the best advantage of his directorate. Cohen said he's pushing hard to get more information about his corner of DHS onto the web. That would help the general public better understand the mission, and help scientists, venture capitalists and others in the homeland security industry keep up with the department's lead.
In the meantime, he repeatedly stresses that the DHS is open for business. "I have a high risk tolerance and I'm willing to take chances to get significant improvements in capability and game changers," Cohen said. "But I ain't gonna buy no junk."
He said DHS recently requested proposals far and wide for science and technology that could help detect or neutralize liquid explosives. His crew traveled to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, where the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center is located. The DHS airport screeners on hand for the demonstrations didn't walk away with a tremendous feeling of reassurance, Cohen said.
"We blew up an awful lot of things," Cohen recalled with a grim shake of his head. "We found that a significant portion —€”less than half of all the devices proffered and some of which looked very mature in their packaging—€”didn't do what they claimed they would do."
But despite some disappointments, Cohen views such exercises as progress. His job is to endure the trials and errors that lead to a technological "game changer" that will ultimately save American lives.
"That's fine," Cohen said, recalling the Socorro experiment. "I do acquisition. I don't do S&T."
Tom Michael reports from Washington for Innovation.
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