Roger Viadero, a Robert C. Byrd associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at West Virginia University and the director of the WVU Center for Environmental Research, has been appointed a senior fellow of the Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) at George Washington University in Washington , D.C.

Senior fellows at HSPI represent a select group of homeland security leaders from government, academia and the non-profit and private sectors, with expertise ranging from bioterrorism to critical infrastructure protection to intelligence. HSPI senior fellows participate in roundtable sessions with senior government officials, collaborate with the HSPI Steering Committee to publish policy papers and conduct homeland security-related research.

Dr. Viadero’s expertise spans a wide range of biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological fields, including the physical and chemical treatment and disposal of hazardous, nuclear and mixed wastes; water reclamation and reuse; environmental aquatic chemistry; and comprehensive environmental monitoring. Sponsors of his research include the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation, in addition to state agencies and nonprofit organizations.

Prior to joining WVU ’s faculty, Dr. Viadero was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay . He has held fellowships through the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Energy, and was an FBI director’s intern, working under Judge William S. Sessions at the FBI ’s Forensic Science Research and Training Center in Quantico, Va.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Mary Washington College , a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from West Virginia University .

More information on the HSPI program and Dr. Viadero can be found athttp://www.hspi.gwu.eduandhttp://www.hspi.gwu.edu/experts/Viadero_bio.htm, respectively.