AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Satellite Imagery for
Conflict Prevention and Human Rights:
An Event in Honor of Human Rights Day 2006

Biographies of the Speakers

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Alan Leshner has been Chief Executive Officer of AAAS and Executive Publisher of the journal Science since December 2001. Dr. Leshner received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Franklin and Marshall College, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physiological psychology from Rutgers University. He also holds honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Franklin and Marshall College and the Pavlov Medical University in St. Petersburg, Russia. The U.S. President appointed Dr. Leshner to the National Science Board in 2004, and he represents AAAS on the U.S. Commission for UNESCO.

Matthew Levinger is Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Academy for Genocide Prevention. His research and teaching have focused on the history of nationalism and revolutionary political theory in modern Europe, as well as the history of genocide during the twentieth century. He is the author of Enlightened Nationalism: The Transformation of Prussian Political Culture, 1806-1848 (Oxford, 2000) and coauthor of The Revolutionary Era, 1789-1850 (Norton, 2002). He received his B.A. from Haverford College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago. In 2004-2005, he worked as a consultant for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, developing plans for the Academy for Genocide Prevention.

Paul D. Williams is senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK and visiting associate professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. He is author of British Foreign Policy under New Labour, 1997-2005 (Palgrave-Macmillan), and co-author of Understanding Peacekeeping (Polity/Blackwell). His main research interests are in the areas of peace operations and conflict resolution.

Lars Bromley is a Senior Program Associate in the Office of International Initiatives at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). His primary interests are applying information and communication technologies, especially geospatial technologies, to human rights and sustainable development. He has been with the AAAS since 1997, serving as the principal researcher and chief cartographer for the AAAS Atlas of Population and Environment, and developing integrated research projects and databases supporting AAAS projects in Russia and South America. He has an M.A. in Geography from the University of Maryland.

Matthew G. McKinzie is currently a scientific consultant to the Nuclear Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Since obtaining his Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics, he has worked in the areas of nuclear non-proliferation, the environmental impacts of nuclear weapons production, homeland security and the application of satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to human rights.

Ariela Blätter is the Director of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center at Amnesty International, where she manages Amnesty's response to conflicts by creating flexible, effective response strategies for key policymakers, non-governmental organizations, the media and the general public. She is an international human rights lawyer, with a specialization in the rights of women and children in armed conflict. She has been a special representative to the United Nations on the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the Director of Human Rights for ELSA in Ireland, and an international affairs specialist on the Middle East conflict for the Jewish Community Relations Council in Boston. Currently, she is engaged on a project with AAAS to create an early warning system to identify emerging conflict and genocide through the use of commercial satellite technology.

Debra Liang-Fenton is the Executive Director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. She is responsible for conceptualizing and coordinating all projects undertaken by the Committee. Debra has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject of North Korean refugees and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on life inside North Korea. She is a regular participant in Congressional hearings and working groups on human rights in North Korea. She is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations focus group on North Korean refugees, and the China task force sponsored by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Debra also regularly advises policymakers in the State Department and the Agency for International Development. Working in partnership with U.S.-based and international NGOs, Debra has helped to bring about the European Union resolution on North Korea this year at the UN Commission on Human Rights. She was the keynote presenter at Amnesty International's Annual General Meeting in April 2003. Her work with the media has included appearances on CNN and Fox; and work with NBC News, CBS News, ABC Primetime, PBS, NPR, the BBC, ITN Britain, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Christian Science Monitor, U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek, and other international print, television, and radio outlets.

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(site updated 11/27/2006)