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Everything you need to know about international travel

Posted on | November 18, 2009 | 2,925 views |

University’s export controls policy helps safeguard faculty — and faculty research — while working overseas

By Jeff McCallister

Terry Conlisk had been invited to present a paper at a prestigious conference, and for efficiency’s sake, he figured it best to take his presentation on his laptop computer.

But as he planned his trip, it occurred to him that as a professor of mechanical engineering, his computer likely contained information — from login encryption software to certain other programs even to some of his own research — that the United States government may not exactly appreciate him taking with him; the conference, the International Workshop on Continuum Modeling of Biomolecules, was in Beijing, China.

So part of his planning for the trip included a call to the Office of Research Compliance, which is charged with overseeing the university’s export controls policy.

Export controls regulate both items (such as laptops, GPS units, cell phones) and some types of research information (such as restricted or proprietary data). Whether the item or information is regulated is based on the specific item as well as where the item is going.

Non-compliance with export controls can result in heavy fines and criminal charges against the individual involved and sanctions against the university. It can result in the loss of research contracts, governmental funding and the ability to export items.

“To be honest, I think faculty are about 90 to 95 percent completely ignorant of the entire policy,” Conlisk said. “It’s just something that in general they do not think about.”

While the vast majority of research done at Ohio State is shielded from export controls under the fundamental research exclusion — basic and applied research, the results of which ordinarily are published and shared broadly within the scientific community — there are numerous examples of instances that could trigger export controls, according to Jennifer Yucel, Ohio State’s export controls administrator.

Some examples are: Research in export restricted science and engineering areas such as military articles, nuclear technology, select biological agents or toxins and satellite technology; traveling overseas with high-tech equipment, confidential, unpublished or proprietary information or data, sponsored research containing contractual restrictions on publication or dissemination. Even the sharing of certain information with a foreign national (and even if that person is, say, one of a professor’s own graduate students) is covered by export controls.

“It’s a very complicated set of regulations, administered by three different departments of the US government,” Yucel said. “We don’t expect anyone to know everything about what’s covered, so we would strongly urge anyone traveling across the border to get in touch with this office to make sure everything’s in order first. Our primary goal is to make sure that people have the correct information if they are asked for it when traveling.”

Conlisk, for example, decided to take his laptop, but first backed it up on an exterior hard drive and purged the computer of any files that could have been export controlled. He then had Yucel’s office take a look and issue any necessary paperwork for anything he had left.

“They tell you you could very well get your laptop confiscated at the border, either when you enter another country or when you’re coming back to the US,” Conlisk said. “If you don’t have the right licenses and such, it really could ruin your day.”

In the end, Conlisk said that thanks to the advance preparation, his trip to Beijing went off without a hitch. “It was rather pleasant,” he said. “I was surprised how easy it actually was.”

A copy of the Ohio State policy on export controls as well as general information and FAQs on export controls can be found at orc.osu.edu/exportcontrol/index.cfm.

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