Luther Lindler, PhD
Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate
SPADA YERSINIA PESTIS WORKING GROUP CHAIR
Dr. Lindler joined the DHS Science and Technology Directorate in October 2003 as a Senior Science
Advisor. Dr. Lindler currently serves as the DHS S&T liaison to the Department of Defense Joint Program
Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD). He also serves as the Chief Scientist
for the DHS Chemical and Biological Defense Division providing biodefense expertise to both DOD as
well as DHS in the area of infectious disease threats from a global perspective. Dr. Lindler’s previous
work provided strategic investments to bring forward deployed rapid molecular diagnostics to U.S.
forces. Dr. Lindler provided technical leadership in the Federal Material Threat Assessment and
Biological Risk Assessment programs. He helped plan the National Biodefense Analysis and
Countermeasures Center forensics and threat characterization programs as well as the first DHS
laboratory building on the Fort Detrick National Biodefense Campus. Before joining DHS, Dr. Lindler was
a leader in the U.S. Army Biodefense program. He was a principle investigator at the Walter Reed Army
Institute of Research leading a team of professionals studying the pathogenesis of the plague bacterium.
He served on the Army’s plague vaccine steering committee and the emerging threats steering
committee within the Biodefense program. The peak of his career with the Army culminated with his
senior editorship of the well-acclaimed Biodefense book entitled, “Biological Weapons Defense;
Infectious Diseases and Counterbioterrorism.” Dr. Lindler was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of
Dr. Susan Straley at the University of Kentucky in Lexington from 1987 until 1989. Dr. Lindler received his
Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Medical College of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Science in
Microbiology from Clemson University in 1981 and his Bachelor’s of Science in Medical Technology from
Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina in 1978.
Paul Jackson, PhD
Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (Retired)
SPADA BACILLUS ANTHRACIS WORKING GROUP CO-CHAIR
Paul received his Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of Washington in Cellular Biology and
his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Molecular Biology. He was a visiting scholar at the Center for
International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University from September 2011-September
2012 and is now a CISAC affiliate. He is also an adjunction professor at the Middlebury Institute of
International Studies at Monterey (formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies) where he
team teaches a class entitled “Science and Technology for Non-proliferation and Terrorism Studies”.