Charles McQueary

harles McQueary brings a business sensibility to the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate. The directorate's mission is to fight terrorism through science. Tactics range from developing ways to counteract the effects of chemical and biological weapons, to researching promising new technology to detect behavior patterns common to terrorists.

In the past 40 years, the federal government has yielded its role as the dominant force in research and development to the private sector. McQueary, 64, has been involved in some of the most successful R&D firms, and he is now applying his business-management style to his new job. The directorate will rely primarily on partnerships with industry and academia, rather than developing projects on its own.

McQueary was president of General Dynamics' Advanced Technology Systems in Greensboro, N.C. Previously, he was president of the AT&T division that was spun off in 1996 as Lucent Technologies and he was director of AT&T's Bell Laboratories.

McQueary's directorate will have fewer than 200 employees in fiscal 2004 and will spend most of its money on outside grants and contract services. The directorate houses the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, designed to provide seed funding for cutting-edge technology, equipment, and approaches to countering and responding to terrorism. It is modeled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Reviews of McQueary's first 10 months in office are mixed, but the consensus is that the directorate is on track. One significant achievement was the naming of the University of Southern California as the first Homeland Security Center of Excellence.

McQueary, who was born in Gordon, Texas, holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering and a doctorate in engineering mechanics from the University of Texas (Austin).