Join SES and Benjamin Miller, Tom LaTourrette, Drake Warren, and Dave Metz as they cover the results of a two-year study by NIST and RAND documenting the role of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in the standards development process and measuring the value these standards provide to society.
|
|
4/21/2021
|
|
When:
|
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
1:00 - 2:00 PM EDT
|
|
Where:
|
United States
|
|
Presenter:
|
Benjamin Miller, Tom LaTourrette, Drake Warren, and Dave Metz
|
Online registration is closed.
|
|
This webinar will cover the results of a two-year study by NIST and RAND documenting the role of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in the standards development process and measuring the value these standards provide to society. While the safety and health benefits of standards are generally acknowledged, our understanding of their value, how they accrue, and what entities and activities are responsible for creating them is limited. This webinar will be helpful to standards professionals at all levels to learn, through example, how standards could be assessed and the role of standards in society.
 |
Benjamin Miller is an Economist at the RAND Corporation and a Professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Broadly, his research falls into two categories. The first examines how incentives, such as regulatory and financial structures, support or inhibit efficient system operation. The second category estimates the costs and benefits associated with various policies, programs, and public goods, typically in non-market environments. In addition to this work on fire safety standards, Dr. Miller’s research includes retrospective economic impact evaluations of the benefits associated with research and services provided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, as well as forthcoming research on the benefits of inventions. Other research includes retrospective economic analysis of the number of tornado fatalities and injuries prevented by NOAA weather radios, a review of econometric methods for estimating the value of geospatial information, an explanation of how the new regulatory budget system interacts with existing regulatory processes, and a Congressionally mandated study on airport infrastructure finance policies. Previously, Dr. Miller worked as a statistician supporting the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. Dr. Miller holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, San Diego.
|
 |
Tom LaTourrette is a Senior Physical Scientist at RAND. He has over 15 years of experience studying occupational hazards and safety & health interventions for emergency responders, as well as terrorism security technologies and procedures. This work has included analysis of the benefits of safety interventions, which has involved assessing the effect of technologies on safety and health outcomes and the monetization of those outcomes. His work has involved understanding the role of standards (primarily NFPA, NIOSH, and NIJ standards related to emergency responder safety and health) and understanding emerging needs for new standards. Studies include evaluation of personal protection needs for emergency responders, examination of safety and health interventions used by public safety employees, quantitative evaluation of the life-saving effectiveness body armor, identification of risk factors for injuries in law enforcement officer vehicle crashes, benefits associated with reduction in terrorism risk resulting from new border security regulations, and assessment of lessons learned for protecting emergency responders in response to large terrorist attacks. Dr. LaTourrette was also a member of the Advisory Panel to California's Little Hoover Commission report, Safeguarding the State: Preparing for Catastrophic Events, in 2006. He holds a Ph.D. in geology from the California Institute of Technology.
|
 |
Drake Warren is a Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation. While at RAND, Dr. Warren’s research has focused on advising military and homeland security sponsors on business policies, investments, and the acquisition of new technologies. A focus of Dr. Warren’s work is on business policies at the U.S. Army’s intramural research laboratories and test ranges. Prior to joining RAND, he was an R&D Systems Research Analyst at Sandia National Laboratories. While at Sandia, he led several efforts for external sponsors that that assessed the potential economic impacts of disruptions to industries and infrastructure systems caused by historic and simulated hurricanes, climate change, H1N1, terrorism, and other disruptive events. In this work, Dr. Warren helped develop new economic impact methods for assessing potential economic impacts of supply-chain disruptions across the entire U.S. economy. Dr. Warren earned a Ph.D. in Spatial and Regional Analysis from the Agricultural and Consumer Economics Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
|
 |
Dave Metz is a Quantitative Analyst at the RAND Corporation. Mr. Metz has a strong background in cost-benefit and retrospective analysis, specializing in quantitative methods to evaluate the impacts of policies and programs in homeland security, energy, and the environment. He conducted regulatory impact analyses for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Coast Guard, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mr. Metz has also conducted case studies of the economic impact of research studies, guidance, and standards by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). His areas of expertise include econometrics, economic modeling and simulation, and large data and survey analysis. Prior to joining RAND, Mr. Metz specialized in regulatory analysis at Industrial Economics, Inc., which conducted the first retrospective analyses of EPA’s Clean Air Act Amendments and the first retrospective analysis of CBP’s Importer Security Filing and Additional Carrier Requirements. Mr. Metz has also previously worked on economic damages valuation in complex environmental litigation, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Metz received an M.S. in Economics from University College London. |
|
2023 SES Lorne K. Wagner Award Winner