About the Center

The Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College (TRC) was created in 2003 to facilitate research on terrorism, extremist violence, and the effectiveness of intervention strategies. The Center plays host to the American Terrorism Study (ATS), the nation's longest running research project on terrorism in the United States. The project provides a comprehensive record of persons indicted in federal courts as a result of FBI "terrorism enterprise" investigations. Funded through the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice, the ATS is conducted in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and under the sponsorship of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Working in collaboration with the ATS' primary sponsor, the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) in Oklahoma City, much of the ATS data can be accessed through MIPT's Terrorism Knowledge Base.

The director of the TRC, Dr. Brent Smith, graduated from Purdue University with a PhD in Criminal Justice in 1979. His research focuses on the study of social movements and terroristic activities and is directed towards an improvement in the ability of governmental agencies to both predict and respond to terroristic events.He has writen numerous articles published in Criminology and Criminology and Public Policy and has presented at major conferences throughout the US on his findings from the American Terrorism Study (ATS) and other related projects.

Please visit the research section of the TRC website, for a complete list of research projects at the TRC. Other members of the TRC staff include research associates, Paxton Roberts and Chris Shields.