Homeland security center, businesses begin talks

Northwestern’s new homeland security center, designed to help businesses create transportation security products, has “begun dialogue” with 15 potential businesses, Bret Johnson, the center’s director, said Monday.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich launched the Homeland Security Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Oct. 7 because of NU’s strong research in transportation, infrastructure technology, nanotechnology and public safety, Johnson said. Blagojevich started 14 other Illinois entrepreneurial centers with $350,000 from the state of Illinois, but NU’s is the first to focus on homeland security. The center combines the efforts of Evanston’s Illinois Technology Enterprise Center and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity with the university.

“The U.S. economy depends on transportation and trade from moving goods to shipping, and Illinois is one of the biggest transportation hubs in the world,” Johnson said. “A lot of goods are shipped and a lot of people are moved. It’s important that we protect this transportation.”

The center will give $5,000 Challenge Grants to businesses working on security devices. Examples of such inventions include tracking devices that follow goods as they are shipped, and radiation devices that warn people when they are near radioactive material, Johnson said. Businesses could also use the grant money to research terrorist moving patterns that would predict future terrorist activity.

The first grant was given to the Evanston-based Ohmx Corporation earlier this month to develop a disposable biosensor chip that detects bacteria, viruses and toxins.

Johnson is the only NU faculty member working at the center, but he said he hopes to hire a second member by the end of November.

– Margaret Matray