Contingency Planning and the Impact of Pandemics on Computational Infrastructures

Wednesday 13th January 2010, 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Professor Chris Johnson, University of Glasgow.

Room G.07, University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB - map (click on Informatics Forum in the list of buildings).

This talk is free of charge. Refreshments available from 6:00 pm.

Synopsis

Over the last three years, Professor Johnson has been involved in a series of projects that are intended to increase the resilience of Europe's critical infrastructures against a number of potential threats.

Tthe impact of large-scale flood events on telecommunications networks and on the Internet have been considered. The impact of deliberate insider threats to software infrastructures, for example in Air Traffic Management have been considered. However, the focus of this talk is on the contingency plans that have been drawn up by commercial and government agencies around Europe for dealing with possible pandemics, including both H1N1 and H5N1 outbreaks.

About the speaker

Chris Johnson is Professor of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. He is chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the SESAR programme - which is the European programme for the modernisation of air transport. He has held fellowships from NASA and the US Air Force. He helped to write the guidelines for accident and incident investigation for European Air Traffic Management and is now developing similar guidance for the European Railways Agency. He also was part of the team that developed guidelines for contingency planning in Air Traffic Management across Europe. Professor. Johnson is also part of the European Commissions initiative to increase the resilience of fixed and mobile telecommunications and the Internet.