Disaster mitigation isn’t just about stepping in to deal with problems when they happen. While those steps are important, it also takes preparation, planning, and hypothesizing what may happen if certain events occur in order to be fully prepared. Eric Rollison, Deputy Associate Director of the Analysis Division, works with a team of scientist engineers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to do just that.
“What we do at the National Risk Management Center (NRMC) is look at complex streams of information and try to discern new insights or information,” Rollison said. “We also take incomplete sets of information and try to apply new models and statistical efforts of new and novel mathematical approaches to discern what this means and how this can affect critical infrastructure.”
His team of scientists, engineers, risk analysts, and program management analysts work on the most challenging and complex questions related to critical infrastructure. Ensuring the national and economic security of the entire United States is an enormous task, but Rollison and his team rise to the occasion.
“If you’re working on something you love, something you’re passionate about, it’s very hard to put it down,” he said. “You always want to take the next step of trying to solve that problem, and that’s kind of what I do on a daily basis and what my team does as well.”
The work of NRMC is never finished, but it’s incredibly rewarding. “It provides an unparalleled opportunity to influence the policy of the US government, but to also work on very challenging problems. These range from attempting to understand the consequences of a large scale cyber event to looking at the impacts from a potential large scale infrastructure system over multiple states.”
Rollison has a fantastic team, but there is room on the team for talented individuals. “We’re always looking for someone that has an intellectual curiosity about problems,” he said. “They may not come from a traditional background, but they’re curious and find new ways of thinking about problems.”
Visit CISA’s website to find job openings and learn how you can join CISA and NRMC’s mission to protect critical infrastructure.
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