Nearly a decade later, the niche now is front and center, and the Ph.D. chemist has parlayed good experience and great connections into a more recent role as president and CEO of Versar Inc., a Springfield, Va., engineering firm that has boomed along with the national obsession over chemical and biological security.

The national security breach of 9/11 and others in the days and weeks following played a big role in Versar's new visibility. The firm was one of the industry's biggest responders to the spate of anthrax outbreaks in the fall of 2001, barely able to keep up with the clamor of calls from federal agencies, media outlets, banks and other institutions for cleanups and future protection. The hoopla sent shares of the publicly owned company, normally shunned by Wall Street like other mid-sized E&C firms, through the roof. "We were trading about 100,000 shares a day," says Vice President Michael J. Abram.