Academics can be cool and useful.
These two guys are worth over $50billion a year to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), but the U.S. Government does not seem to care about intelligence-driven revenue-collection.
These guys ROCK and represent all that academics should be in the service of their country and theircommunity.
Dr. Simon J. Pak and Dr. John S. Zdanowicz, Penn State University and Florida International University OSS '03: For their extraordinary demonstration, with a tangible value to the public of $50 billion a year in tax fraud savings, of new methods of academic investigation into public trade records, and the consequent discovery of specific instances of import-export money laundering and financial fraud, as well as weight variances associated with the smuggling of contraband and the mis-representation of cargo.
Below are their paper and slides as presented at OSS '03. These guys should have their own investigative cell fully-funded by the IRS and ultimately in ther service of all governments (a multinational global service).
