Dr. Victor Asal spoke on the quantitative analytical perspective on tracking political violence and terrorism. Dr. Asal (Ph.D. University of Maryland, 2003) is Director of the Center for Policy Research and a Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Albany. He is affiliated with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence. His research focuses on nonstate actor violence and the causes of political discrimination particularly related to ethnicity and gender. He also researches nuclear crisis behavior and pedagogy. Dr. Asal has been involved in research projects funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the Department of Homeland Security.