Secretive lab, UNLV part ways

Friday, Sept. 28, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

In a move intended to refocus it on academics, UNLV's Institute for Security Studies has cut ties with its secretive technology laboratory, originally billed as a cornerstone of the once-troubled anti-terrorism center.

All six members of the lab, housed in a basement floor of a security-conscious office complex near UNLV, resigned last week and now are working for National Security Technologies, the private contractor that runs the Nevada Test Site for the Energy Department.

Among those who left the institute are lab director Harry Bostick, a former top researcher for Bechtel Nevada, the company that previously ran the Test Site, and former university system Regent Doug Seastrand, an ex-Bechtel engineer.

Scott Smith, the retired Army major general UNLV hired in October to steer the institute back on to an academic track, said the lab had completed its anti-terrorism work and had not been able to obtain new federal grants.

"I had hoped they would be able to find work and continue to win contracts, but that just didn't happen," Smith said. "I think things have really worked out for the best."

Smith insisted the split with the lab will allow the institute to better direct resources to its core missions and should not be seen as a diminishment of its activities.

The institute, Smith said, will continue to focus on providing emergency response training, conducting homeland security forums and expanding UNLV's rejuvenated master ' s program in crisis and emergency management.

Throughout its four-year existence, the counterterrorism center, created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, had been generally tight-lipped about the lab's federally funded work, describing it as top secret.

Last year, however, the institute reported that the lab was working on a sensor device to seek out snipers, performing infrared testing to detect heat from a human body and studying electromagnetic waves that measure energy from a nuclear blast. The institute also said it had developed a research program for concealed weapons that could see through walls.

This week, it said it also had worked on developing a high-resolution cargo imaging system and a system to better estimate the strength of non-nuclear explosive devices.

Before Smith's tenure, critics accused the institute of exaggerating the lab's accomplishments and obtaining federal funding under UNLV's name for research that competed with the work of private government contractors.

Smith described the departure of the researchers as a "good fit" for National Security Technologies and a "win-win" for both the university and the company, which receives federal money for high-tech homeland security research.

Gillian Silver-Rodis, a National Security Technologies spokeswoman, said the six lab members will work on classified projects headed by the company's remote sensing lab at Nellis Air Force Base.

Silver-Rodis and university officials said that no decision has been made on what to do with the lab's equipment which, under terms of the institute's Energy Department grants, is owned by the government.

In notifying the Energy Department that the lab had completed its work last week, the institute provided the federal agency with a long list of computer and electronic equipment in its possession.

Smith said that National Security Technologies and UNLV officials are making arrangements for the company to take over the lab's monthly lease so that the six researchers can continue working there, despite the lab's new affiliation.

Smith said giving up the lab has allowed the institute to get out of the technical research business, which is better suited for private companies.

"Rather than doing in-house research ourselves, we will try to mobilize opportunities for others at UNLV," he said. "I want to get federal money to the right people at UNLV, who can do the best job for the government and the country."

This week, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the driving force behind the creation of the institute , announced that the program, which is geared toward professional emergency workers, had received a new $442,776 grant from the Homeland Security Department.

The master ' s program was revived in January after months on hold because of curriculum problems.

Reid, who obtained several million dollars in federal money to establish the institute, was among those who criticized the anti-terrorism center last year for failing to live up to its academic promises.

An internal UNLV audit, prompted by a June 2006 Sun story on the institute's failings, found shoddy record-keeping and an overall lack of oversight at the center.