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Welcome to the newest virtual program hosted by MORS! Designed to keep the MORS community connected and engaged, bi-weekly MORS-Talks cover relevant issues, professional, technical and career development topics.
If you have a suggestion for an interview candidate or are interested in being interviewed yourself, please contact Shelbie Jenkins at shelbie.jenkins@mors.org or 703-933-9072.
Thomas joined Dstl in 2007, and since then has worked in various Operational Analysis roles supporting strategic decision making in the UK MOD. Initially working in quantitative force structure analysis, to a greater or lesser extent, Thomas has been responsible for developing all of the tools currently in use to support force sizing decisions, including supporting the 2010, 2015 and 2020/1 Defence Reviews. Thomas has also been involved in campaign analysis, leading the analysis work on a recent major scenario in the UK’s Planned Force Testing process, and most recently leading the development of Lance, the UK’s new campaign-level combat simulation.
Erica Dill-Russell is the New Zealand Science and Technology Foreign Liaison Officer to US Special Operations Command Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics. She works for the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) Defence Technology Agency (DTA) Operational Analysis Section. She holds a Masters in International Security from Massey University and a Bachelors of International Business from Otago University. She is also an ex-Lance Corporal of the New Zealand Army having completed one tour of Afghanistan in 2012-2013. Learn More
Erica Dill-Russell is the New Zealand Science and Technology Foreign Liaison Officer to US Special Operations Command Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics. She works for the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) Defence Technology Agency (DTA) Operational Analysis Section. She holds a Masters in International Security from Massey University and a Bachelors of International Business from Otago University. She is also an ex-Lance Corporal of the New Zealand Army having completed one tour of Afghanistan in 2012-2013.
Erica’s areas of work within Operations Analysis focus on Special Forces capability development, Operational gender studies and organisational studies investigating the remodelling of corps to suit the demands of contemporary military operations.
Erica is an amateur carpenter, a keen baker of naturally fermented breads and an avid gym goer.
Dr. Ben Taylor is an experienced defence operations research (OR) analyst who has worked in the defence industry as well as for the Governments of the United Kingdom and Canada. He is accredited as a Fellow of the Operations Research Society.
A native of Colchester in the United Kingdom, Dr. Taylor studied at the University of Leicester gaining degrees of B.Sc. (Combined Studies) in 1986 and Ph.D. (Chemistry) in 1993.
From 1989 he worked for Westland System Assessment Ltd of Yeovil in England mostly on software projects and studies into the tactical employment of helicopters. Learn More
From 1989 he worked for Westland System Assessment Ltd of Yeovil in England mostly on software projects and studies into the tactical employment of helicopters. In 1996 he joined the UK MOD’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency and transitioned to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) on its foundation in 2002. Most of his work in this period was in support of joint force development and the future equipment plan. In 2007 Dr. Taylor moved to Canada to work for Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC) in the Centre for Operational Research and Analysis. He supports the development of Canadian future force planning analysis and has served as analysis advisor to the Director General Capability and Structure Integration.
From 2003 to 2015, Dr. Taylor was a member (and from 2008 Chair) of the joint analysis panel of the five-eyes technical cooperation programme (TTCP). He is the primary author of the TTCP Guides to Capability Based Planning, (2004) and to Analysis Support to Strategic Planning (2012). He is currently the Chair of a NATO study into 21st century force development (SAS-164). Dr. Taylor has been a participant in many MORS special meetings related to his areas of interest and was one of the first overseas members of MORS. From 20014-16 he was an advisory director of the society.
Dr. Taylor lives in Ottawa, Ontario and holds both UK and Canadian citizenships.
Dr. Ed McGrady writes, speaks, and teaches on the design of professional games. He is an adjunct senior fellow in the Gaming Lab at CNAS, teaches and manages game design courses for MORS/Virginia Tech, and runs a business devoted to using games and game techniques to bring innovative experiences in new areas. In the past, Dr. McGrady built and directed a team of 10-20 analysts at CNA devoted to the design and execution of professional games devoted to chemical and biological response operations, including domestic response operations. His team constructed exercises, games, and analyses on a broad range of homeland security, counterterrorism, and chemical, biological, and radiological defense operations. Learn More
Dr. Ed McGrady writes, speaks, and teaches on the design of professional games. He is an adjunct senior fellow in the Gaming Lab at CNAS, teaches and manages game design courses for MORS/Virginia Tech, and runs a business devoted to using games and game techniques to bring innovative experiences in new areas. In the past, Dr. McGrady built and directed a team of 10-20 analysts at CNA devoted to the design and execution of professional games devoted to chemical and biological response operations, including domestic response operations. His team constructed exercises, games, and analyses on a broad range of homeland security, counterterrorism, and chemical, biological, and radiological defense operations. As part of that effort, he deployed analysts in support of the analyses of real-world events. Dr . McGrady also deployed as an analyst with US Forces in Haiti during operation Uphold Democracy, onboard USS Nimitz for Desert Storm and with operational E-2C squadrons.
Dr. McGrady holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan and has published extensively in the Chemical Engineering, physics, and national security literature and is the author of Roll to Save: Gaming Disease Response (2021).
Author of The Art of Wargaming and Internationally Recognized Game Designer
Dr. Peter P. Perla III has been involved with wargaming, both hobby and professional, for over forty years, an involvement that sparked a lifelong interest in military history and games of strategy. A frequent player of commercial wargames as a youngster, he had already published articles in the hobby press before he was an undergraduate. After earning a PhD from Carnegie-Mellon University with his thesis on Lanchester mathematical combat models, he joined the Center for Naval Analyses in 1977 as a naval operations research analyst.
