Researcher Spotlight: Jun Zhuang
At SENTRY, our researchers, faculty, staff, and students are integral to our continued advancements in the homeland security sphere and our commitment to eliminating attacks on soft targets and crowded places. We recently connected with Dr. Jun Zhuang, Research Thrust Lead of SENTRY’s Threat Risk Assessment, Prediction, and Deterrence team, and Morton C. Frank professor at the University at Buffalo. Read on to learn about Jun’s work, his contributions to SENTRY’s mission, and his life outside of the office.
Jun was a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center of Excellence (COE) “product” in the sense that his Ph.D. research was funded from 2004 to 2008 by the first DHS COE, Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies (CREATE). Jun obtained his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008. Jun has since worked for the University at Buffalo, a core institution within SENTRY, for about fifteen years. There, he serves as a Morton C. Frank professor and Director of Graduate Studies within the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. In addition to his work with SENTRY, Jun is also the Director of the Decision, Risk, and Data Laboratory, through which he is working on a research project related to wildfire management, funded by the National Science Foundation.
At SENTRY, as Research Thrust Lead, Jun’s main research goal is to develop data-driven and game-theoretical models that better predict and assess threats to soft targets and crowded places to deter potential attackers and mitigate the impact of attempted attacks. Jun maintains that making efforts to understand, assess, and predict potential attacks is a crucial first step that will help decision-makers find the best ways to allocate resources, avoid misinformation, and create functional partnerships. He described his vision for the future of soft target protection.
“In my mind, the future of soft target protection is a technology-assisted, human-centered, public-private partnership,” Jun said. “My work will contribute to this vision by understanding the objectives, preferences, and constraints of each stakeholder.”
Jun’s overall research objective is to integrate operations research, big data analytics, game theory, and decision analysis to enhance mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery in the face of natural and man-made disasters. He describes the most rewarding aspects of his work as the academic freedom and flexibility to research timely and important topics, as well as his ability to travel the world as he does it.
“The complexity of the problem, especially those involving multiple stakeholders and adaptive adversaries, keeps me motivated to do the research,” Jun said. “I really enjoy working with my graduate and undergraduate students on this project and growing with them over the years. The potential of making a real impact excites me.”
Jun is internationally recognized as a leader in homeland security and disaster management and has earned accolades specifically for his work modeling the behavior of adversaries and optimizing defensive investments. In 2022, he was selected as a fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that is made up of a diverse group of members from academia, government, consulting, industry, and non-governmental organizations.
In addition to his work at SENTRY, Jun enjoys playing piano daily and has been taking weekly lessons since he reached tenure in 2014. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, three children, a dog, and two cats.
