---
title: "The Legacies of 9/11, a Quarter-Century Later"
date: 2026-09-11T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/the-legacies-of-9-11-a-quarter-century-later"
section: Articles
---
# The Legacies of 9/11, a Quarter-Century Later

*September 11, 2026* — by [Maryland Today Staff](/author/maryland-today-staff)


> The attacks transformed the nation and world. 4 UMD experts with a up-close view reflect on how.

*September 11 Flowers on ODK Fountain 1920x10801 — UMD community members gathered around ODK Fountain the day after Sept. 11, 2001. (Photo by John T. Consoli)*

<span id="docs-internal-guid-8f21a74f-7fff-26da-5025-5844990a8bec">People often say they remember exactly where they were on Sept. 11, 2001, when they first learned of the terrorist attacks. But that’s not the case for most Terps on campus today, as they hadn’t yet been born.</span>

<span>Twenty-five years ago, 19 hijackers commandeered four airliners and over 77 minutes, slammed them into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and into a field in rural Pennsylvania when passengers fought back. The attacks killed 2,977 people and injured thousands more.</span>

<span>The panic, the smoke and the raw grief of that day remain vivid for many, including the 8,000 members of the University of Maryland community who turned out the next day on McKeldin Mall for a memorial or rolled up their sleeves to contribute to a campus blood drive.</span>

<span>Maryland Today reached out to several UMD faculty experts to explore how that day reshaped their fields—aviation security, terrorism research, fire protection engineering and the military—and helped create the world we know today, whether we remember 9/11 or encounter it only as history. Their recollections, edited for length and clarity, span continents, decades of war and shifts in public security. The opinions expressed are their own.</span>


*Air transportation expert **Martin Dresner**, professor emeritus in the* [*Robert H. Smith School of Business*](https://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/)*, began studying the effects of post-9/11 security measures in the months after the attacks.*


*Martin Dresner*


*In 2005, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus **Gary LaFree** of UMD’s* [*Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice*](https://ccjs.umd.edu/) *launched the* [*National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism*](https://www.start.umd.edu/)*—better known as START—to bring academic rigor to the study of terrorism. One of its signature projects is the* [*Global Terrorism Database (GTD)*](https://www.start.umd.edu/data-tools/GTD)*, a one-of-a-kind database of global attacks that remains a key tool for researchers and policymakers.*


*Gary LaFree*


***James A. Milke**, professor emeritus of* [*fire protection engineering*](https://fpe.umd.edu/)*, was a lead investigator on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s World Trade Center Building Performance Study, which was convened following 9/11 to investigate the devastation to the complex and issue recommendations for updating building codes.*


*James Milke*


***Douglas “D.A.” Sims II**, distinguished public service fellow in the* [*School of Public Policy*](https://spp.umd.edu/)*, was a young officer on the morning of 9/11, serving as an aide to the general who commanded the Military District of Washington at Fort McNair. Sims spent the majority of his Army career fighting the wars the attacks set in motion. He deployed many times to Iraq and Afghanistan, eventually commanding the 1<sup>st</sup> Infantry Division before retiring at three-star rank in 2025 as director of the Joint Staff, one of the U.S. military’s most senior roles.*


*Douglas “D.A.” Sims II*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [A. James Clark School of Engineering](https://today.umd.edu/topic/james-clark-school-engineering), [Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice](https://today.umd.edu/topic/department-criminology-and-criminal-justice), [Philip Merrill College of Journalism](https://today.umd.edu/topic/philip-merrill-college-journalism), [School of Public Policy](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-public-policy), [Robert H. Smith School of Business](https://today.umd.edu/topic/robert-h-smith-school-business)