Opening Remarks and Welcome

On behalf of the Focus 2000 workshop committee, that consists of program managers and staff across the seven offices of DARPA, and my co-chair, Dr. Millie Donlon, I welcome you to Focus 2000. It's a great time for biology and the science and technology communities. We always had a fascination with the living world around us and the amazing capabilities displayed through evolution in the local optimum we call life.

With the genomic age upon us, we stand at the forefront of the new century with a tremendous amount of promise for what biology might teach us. We strive to understand life's complexities - to utilize the knowledge from the sciences for new innovations and the betterment of our national security, our society, and the world around us. Focus 2000 is a beginning. We hope it begins to nurture the intersections of life sciences with core disciplines in materials, chemistry, physics, and engineering, for it is likely that the sparks of innovation will be crafted at these interfaces.

We hope it begins by breaking down the language barriers to promote productive communications across what are, sometimes, very different scientific committees and cultures. We hope it begins by building, nurturing, and catalyzing a relationship between a very unique organization, DARPA, and the academic, industrial, and other government agencies that seek the same visions and goals.

Focus 2000 is a beginning and an opportunity. We seek your guidance and input to help us set a course; to chart the directions and implications for how life sciences could broadly impact the technological superiority that our country has always maintained.

In accordance with the DARPA charter, our interests are to seek the national security and defense implications of success. It is in these pursuits that DARPA has a significant role to fill. DARPA is an agency that can embrace risk and innovation and reach far across the time horizon.

Focus 2000 is a beginning and an opportunity. The events of this meeting will be posted to the Focus 2000 web page. Over the next day and a half, we hope that you will continue to interact with us, to talk to our program managers, come to our workshops in the future, and help us continue to nurture the ideas that are discussed here and the relationships that are forged.

I wanted to thank you for spending your valuable time to participate in these beginnings. I look forward to a productive workshop and a rewarding day and a half.

I would like now to introduce the director of DARPA, Dr. Frank Fernandez, who has been a strong proponent of our efforts to explore life sciences and seek inspirations for defense applications.