Director, Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program (CBWNP)
[email protected]
Monterey, CA
831.647.6545
Background
A physician by training, Dr. Richard Pilch has focused on national security issues since 9/11 and the “anthrax letter” attacks of 2001. In 2002, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in chemical and biological weapons nonproliferation at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, after which he spent nearly a decade overseas assessing and addressing biological warfare (BW), bioterrorism, and public health emergencies of international concern, including threats posed by the former Soviet Union’s (FSU) legacy offensive BW program. He has performed onsite assessments of every known civilian BW facility in Russia, delivered thousands of man-hours of training to former Soviet scientists spanning nonproliferation, bioethics, and global health security, and planned and implemented dozens of cooperative research projects and pandemic response exercises across the FSU. Dr. Pilch has led multiple threat reduction programs on behalf of the US government, served on over thirty technical panels and advisory boards, and authored more than sixty technical publications and White Papers. He co-edited the definitive Encyclopedia of Bioterrorism Defense (Wiley) with his longtime mentor and former CBWNP Director Dr. Ray Zilinskas in 2005.
Areas of Research
- US-Soviet and US-Russia Nonproliferation Cooperation
- Dual-Use Implications of Emerging Biotechnologies
- Building Diplomacy through Enhanced Global Health Security Cooperation
Education
Dr. Pilch received his MD from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
CNS Work
- The Global Response to COVID-19
WEBINAR SERIES: An ongoing series of webinars addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic response. - The Classified WWII Disaster that Launched the War on Cancer
Webinar: The author discusses her new book, The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster that Launched the War on Cancer. - OP #49: A Guide to Investigating Outbreak Origins
Nature versus the laboratory. - Asia-Pacific Perspective on Bioweapons & Nuclear Deterrence
The threat and control of one category of WMDs affects that of the other. - The Threat and Control of Ricin as a Weapon
A case for accelerating ricin prevention and treatment measures. - COVID-19 Racial/Ethnic Inequities and the Social Determinants of Health
WEBINAR: How legacies of racism are putting people of color into positions of higher risk. - CNS Alumni on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt and Mali
WEBINAR: Featuring former Visiting Fellows. - Opinion: US Food Security During COVID-19
Time to put our money where our mouth is. - The Pandemic’s Preparedness Lessons
How the US can effectively counter biological weapons. - Biowarfare – Can It Tell Us Anything About the Corona Virus?
PODCAST: CNS’s Dr. Pilch discusses the former Soviet Union’s biological weapons program in the context of COVID-19.
