Dr. Clem Fortman is the Director of Security Engagements for the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC). In this role he facilitates communication between the security community and the engineering biology community. Clem works to promote better understanding between these two disparate groups as well as to highlight their common issues and opportunities. Previously he spent four years providing support to the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense as a technical analyst and liaison to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. He has also been a Fellow with the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a founder of the introductory College-Level Experience in Microbiology (iCLEM) program at UC Berkeley, an educational outreach program for under resourced high school students, as well as Lygos, a San Francisco Bay area synthetic biology company. His career in biodefense was stimulated by his time as a soldier in the US Army where he was introduced to the security implications of biological and chemical agents.