John Vitko, Jr.

Director of Biological and Chemical Countermeasures
Science and Technology Directorate
Department of Homeland Security

Dr. Vitko is currently the Director of Biological and Chemical Countermeasures for the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security. In that role, he has overall responsibility for all DHS S&T to deter, detect or mitigate a biological or chemical attack on the people, infrastructure or agriculture of this nation.

Prior to that, John was a Director of Exploratory Systems at Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, where he had been since receiving his PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1975. Trained as a solid state physicist and spectroscopist, John has conducted basic and applied research in support of defense and energy programs; led a major portion of Sandia's Strategic Defense Programs in the 1980s; been the technical director of a multi-laboratory DOE program on the use of unmanned aerospace vehicles for climate research in the 1990s; played a formative role in many advanced detection technology programs at Sandia, ranging from lidars to a hand-held suite of chromatography labs known as µChemLab; led all of Sandia’s biological and chemical defense programs; served as Coordinator for the Detection Thrust Area of DOE's multi-laboratory Chemical and Biological Non-Proliferation Program and as the DOE representative to the multiagency ChemBio Detection Roadmapping Committee.

In September 2002, John went on temporary assignment to Washington DC to help in the planning stages for the Department of Homeland Security and has subsequently joined that agency on an IPA (Interagency Personnel Agreement) status. John also currently chairs a National Research Council study on Advanced Sensors for Bio-agent Detection.

PhD, Physics, Cornell University