Dr. Arlan Andrews, Sr.

The Sunday Telegraph article Sci-fi writers to save the world from terrorism said

Anti-terror chiefs in the United States have hired a team of America’s most original sci-fi authors to dream up techniques to help them combat al-Qaeda.
 
Ideas so far include mobile phones with chemical weapons detectors and brain scanners fitted to airport sniffer dogs, so that security staff can read their minds.
 
Sigma is a group set up by writer Arlan Andrews to pursue “science fiction in the national interest”. Mr Andrews, who predicted handheld, electronic books long before they became a reality, said: “We spend our entire careers living in the future. Those responsible for keeping the nation safe need people to think of crazy ideas.”

Arlan Andrews, Sr., DSc, PE is founder of SIGMA, a think tank of science fiction authors, and is a Registered Professional Engineer and professional member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). While working at the White House Science Office in 1992, he observed a lack of imagination on the part of government technologists and forecasters, and so set up SIGMA to provide the practical futurism of science fiction writers for vital national needs.
 
A former ASME White House Fellow in OSTP (White House Science Office), Arlan later retired from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as Manager of the Advanced Manufacturing Initiatives Department. He then cofounded several high-tech companies, including Muse Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MUZE, 1998 – 2001), and Kinetic Biosystems, Inc., now located in Durham, North Carolina. He previously held positions at AT&T Bell Labs and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, and is presently an Environmental Program Manager for the U.S. Navy at Corpus Christi, Texas. He has published over 400 fiction stories, fact articles, computer books and opinion pieces in 90 venues worldwide, including the first White House endorsement of nanotechnology in 1993. He holds six patents.