David R. Franz, DVM, PhD (Colonel, U.S. Army Retired)

Senior Biological Scientist,
Midwest Research Institute

Director,
National Agricultural Biosecurity Center, Kansas State University

Deputy Director,
Center for Emergency Care and Disaster Preparedness, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine

Dr. Franz served in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for 23 of 27 years on active duty. Dr. Franz has served as both Deputy Commander and then Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and as Deputy Commander of the Medical Research and Materiel Command. Prior to joining the Command, he served as Group Veterinarian for the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

Dr. Franz served as Chief Inspector on three United Nations Special Commission biological warfare inspection missions to Iraq, and as technical advisor on long-term monitoring. He also served as a member of the first two US/UK teams that visited Russia in support of the Trilateral Joint Statement on Biological Weapons and as a member of the Trilateral Experts’ Committee for biological weapons negotiations.

Dr. Franz was Technical Editor for the Textbook of Military Medicine on Chemical and Biological Defense released in 1997. His current national-level committee appointments include the Defense Intelligence Agency Red Team Bio-Chem 2020, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Threat Reduction Advisory Committee Science & Technology Panel and Counterproliferation Panel, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Advanced Sensors (co-chair), the NAS Committee on Research Standards and Practices, and the NAS Committee for Research with Russian Biological Institutes, which he chairs.

Dr. Franz is the Director of the National Agriculture Biosecurity Center at Kansas State University and also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the College of Veterinary Medicine, and holds an adjunct appointment as Professor for the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University. He also serves on the faculty of the Department of Justice, Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama.