International Panel on Fissile Materials

Program on Science and Global Security - Princeton University

Harold Feiveson is a Senior Research Scientist and Lecturer in Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. He has a Ph.D. in public affairs from Princeton University (1972). Feiveson served as the editor of the journal Science & Global Security. His research focus has been on nuclear arms control and nuclear weapons proliferation. With Frank von Hippel, he co-founded and co-directed the Program on Science and Global Security until July 2006.

Alexander Glaser is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs and its Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE). He directs the Nuclear Futures Laboratory in MAE. Glaser received his Ph.D. in physics (2005) from Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. He was on the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is a Co-Editor of Science & Global Security. As of 1 January 2015, he is a co-chair of IPFM.

Zia Mian is a Research Scientist in Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security and directs its Project on Peace and Security in South Asia. He has a Ph.D. in physics (1991) from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His research interests are in nuclear-weapon and nuclear-energy policy in South Asia. He is a Co-Editor of Science & Global Security. As of 1 January 2015, he is a co-chair of IPFM.

Pavel Podvig (Russia) is a researcher at the Program on Science and Global Security and a Senior Research Fellow at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). He began his work on security issues at the Center for Arms Control Studies at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), which was the first independent research organization in Russia dedicated to analysis of technical issues related to arms control and disarmament. Podvig directs his own research project, Russian Nuclear Forces (RussianForces.org). He is also a Co-Editor of Science & Global Security.

Sébastien Philippe is an Associate Research Scholar in Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security and an associate fellow at the Nuclear Knowledges Program at Sciences-Po, Paris. He was previously a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. From 2011-2012, he worked in the French Ministry of Defense, where he was a nuclear safety expert for the strategic submarine forces. His research focuses on developing new verification technologies and approaches to support future nuclear arms control and disarmament efforts, nuclear archaeology, and the history of the French nuclear weapons program. He received his PhD (2018) in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton.

Frank von Hippel is Senior Research Physicist and Professor of Public and International Affairs emeritus in Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security. He has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics (1962) from Oxford University. He co-founded Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security and was co-chair of the IPFM from 2006-14. He has worked on fissile material policy issues for over thirty years.

International participants

Piet de Klerk (The Netherlands) retired from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2017 with the rank of Ambassador. He was a member of the IAEA Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation and served as Director of the Office of External Relations and Policy Coordination in the International Atomic Energy Agency. He chaired the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime. He was responsible for preparing the Nuclear Security Summit 2014 in The Hague. Between 2014 and 2018 he was a member of the UN expert groups on a Fissile Material Cut-Off. He also was the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Netherlands at the UN in New York and ambassador in Jordan.

Anatoli Diakov (Russia) is a Professor of Physics (PhD in 1975) and was Director of the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Russia's MIT) from 1991 to 2011. His policy interests include nuclear arms reductions, the history of Russia's plutonium production, disposition options for excess plutonium, and the feasibility of converting Russia's icebreaker and research reactors from highly enriched to low-enriched uranium.

Jean du Preez (South Africa) is Senior Program Manager for Education and Training at James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies Chief, External Relations and International Cooperation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna. Previously, he was Director of the International Organizations and Non-proliferation Program of the Center for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute for International Studies and, before that, served for 17 years in the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as Deputy Director for non-proliferation and disarmament and as a Senior Political Counselor for Disarmament Affairs at South Africa's Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

José Goldemberg (Brazil) has a PhD in nuclear physics (1954). He was Rector of the University of São Paolo (1986-90), Federal Minister of Science and Technology (1990-91) and Federal Minister of Education (1991-92). While Brazil's Minister of Science and Technology, Goldemberg persuaded President Collor de Mello to end Brazil's nuclear-weapons program. This led Argentina to shut its program down as well, the establishment of a joint Argentine-Brazil regional nuclear inspectorate and both countries joining the NPT as non-weapon states. Goldemberg was co-chair of IPFM during 2006-7.

Pervez Hoodbhoy (Pakistan) is currently Distinguished Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Forman Christian College, Lahore. Previously, he was professor of physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from MIT and is the recipient of the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics, the Baker Award for Electronics, Faiz Ahmad Faiz Prize for contributions to education in Pakistan, and UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science.

Rebecca Johnson (United Kingdom) is the founder and director of the Acronym Institute and, from 1997 to 2009, editor of the highly regarded journal Disarmament Diplomacy, which tracked international negotiations on arms control issues. She has a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and is Vice President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK). She was a co-founder of the Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp(aign) and Board Member and Vice Chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Senior Advisor to the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Hans Blix (2004-2006).

Martin Kalinowski (Germany) is professor for Science and Peace Research and director of the Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker Center for Science and Peace Research at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Since 2010, he has been on leave, serving as Chief of the Capacity Building and Training Section of the CTBTO PrepCom in Vienna. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics (1997). His research interests include novel measurement technologies for radioactivity in the atmosphere and atmospheric transport modeling to detect clandestine nuclear activities.

Jungmin Kang (South Korea) is a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in Washington, DC. Previously, he was a visiting professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, in Daejeon, South Korea. He has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Tokyo University (1999) and spent two years with Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security (1998-2000). His interests include spent-fuel storage, multinational control of enrichment, and plutonium production in North Korea.

Patricia Lewis (Ireland and United Kingdom) is Research Director for International Security at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. She has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics (1981) and has served as Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and before that as Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and was the founding Director of the Verification Technology and Information Centre (VERTIC) in London.

Li Bin (China) is Professor of International Studies and founding Director of the Arms Control Program at the Institute of International Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing. He served previously as Director of the Arms Control Division and Executive Deputy Director of the Program for Science and National Security Studies at China's Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics. His Ph. D. is from the China Academy of Engineering Physics.

Gordon MacKerron (United Kingdom) was until 2014 Director of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) and professor in the School of Business, Management and Economics at Sussex University. He previously directed the Energy Group within SPRU and, in 2001, was Deputy leader of the U.K. Government's Energy Review team. He was founding chair of the U.K. government's independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (2003-2007) and served a three-year term on the U.K. Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution to advise the Queen, the U.K. government and the public on environmental issues (2010-2013).

Yves Marignac (France) is Executive Director of the energy-information agency WISE-Paris. In 1999-2000, he participated in the economic evaluation of the nuclear option commissioned by France's Prime Minister (the Charpin-Dessus-Pellat report). He contributed to the 2001 report to the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Option Assessment Panel on reprocessing plant discharges. In 2005-6, he was scientific and technical advisor to the commission preparing France's public debate on the new European Power Reactor and, in 2012-13 for France's national energy debate.

Paul Meyer (Canada) is Adjunct Professor of International Studies and Fellow in International Security at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He retired from the Canadian Foreign Service in 2010 after a 35-year career, including diplomatic assignments in Oslo, Moscow, Brussels (NATO), Washington, Tokyo and, during 2003-2007, in Geneva where he served as Canada's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament. He has led Canadian delegations to several NPT meetings and writes extensively on arms control and disarmament topics.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian (Iran) is currently a Research Scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security. He is a former diplomat who served as Iran's Ambassador to Germany (1990-1997), head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran's National Security Council (1997-2005) and spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the European Union (2003-5). Mousavian has a PhD in international relations from the University of Kent, UK.

A. H. Nayyar (Pakistan) has a PhD in physics (1973) from Imperial College, London. He retired from the faculty of Quaid-i-Azam University (Pakistan's leading university) in 2005. He has been active in Pakistan's nuclear-weapon policy debate since 1997 and a regular summer visitor with Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security since 1998.

R. Rajaraman (India) is Emeritus Professor of theoretical physics in the School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science and served as Vice President of the Indian National Science Academy (2011-12). He has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University (with Hans Bethe, 1963). He has been contributing articles to India's nuclear-weapon debate since 1970 and was a regular summer visitor with Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security from 2000 to 2009. He was co-chair of IPFM during 2007-14.

M. V. Ramana (India) is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He was previously with Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security and its Nuclear Futures Laboratory. He has a Ph.D. in physics (1994) from Boston University and has held research positions at the University of Toronto and MIT. His research has focused on India's nuclear energy and weapon programs.

Ole Reistad (Norway) is a Research Scientist with a joint appointment at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority. His work has focused primarily on highly enriched uranium issues and the security and safety of the naval spent nuclear fuel on Russia's Kola Peninsula. He is a co-organizer of the Norway-U.K. cooperative study on the verification of nuclear-warhead dismantlement. He has a Ph.D. in physics (2008) from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Henrik Salander (Sweden) is presently a Senior Advisor to SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. During 2008-10, he was chair of the Middle Powers Initiative 2008-10, an NGO dedicated to elimination of nuclear weapons. Previously, he was Ambassador and Deputy Director-General of Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Head of the Department for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.

Annette Schaper (Germany) is a Senior Research Associate at the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt. Her Ph.D. (1987) is in experimental physics from Düsseldorf University. Her research covers nuclear arms control and its technical aspects, including the nuclear test ban, a fissile material cut-off and verification of nuclear disarmament. She was as member of the German delegations to the negotiations on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, and currently is an advisor to the German Expert in the UN Group of Government Experts discussing issues relating to a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty.

Mycle Schneider (France) is an independent energy and nuclear policy consultant. He is the convening lead author of the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report. He founded the energy information agency WISE-Paris in 1983 and directed it until 2003. Since 1997, he has provided information and consulting services on nuclear-energy issues to several European governments, European Parliament Members, NGOs and think tanks.

Tatsujiro Suzuki (Japan) is Vice Director and Professor at the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (RECNA) at Nagasaki University. From January 2010 to March 2014 he served as Vice-Chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission. For the past 20 years Suzuki has provided technical and policy assessments of the international implications of Japan's plutonium fuel-cycle policies and of the feasibility of interim spent-fuel storage as an alternative. He is a member of Advisory Board of Parliament's Special Committee on Nuclear Energy since June 2017. He is also a Council Member of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. He has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Tokyo (1988). As of 1 January 2015, he is a co-chair of IPFM.

Johan Swahn (Sweden) is Director of Sweden's NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review (MKG), an independent nonprofit group working to inform the debate about long-term options for management of radioactive waste in Sweden. He leads the organization's review of the Swedish nuclear industry's application for a permit for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel. He previously worked in the fields of energy, environment and global security in the Department of Physical Resource Theory at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden.

Masafumi Takubo (Japan) is an independent nuclear policy analyst based in Tokyo. He manages the website Kakujoho [Nuclear Information], which he established in 2004. He was affiliated with the Japan Congress Against A-and H-Bombs (GENSUIKIN), a leading grass-roots organization for over thirty years, including as the Senior Researcher in the International Division and as a consultant. Takubo has written widely on Japanese nuclear policy, including on spent-nuclear fuel reprocessing.

Tong Zhao (China) is a Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, based at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. He is on the Board of Directors of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament and an Associate Editor of the journal Science& Global Security. He was a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow with the Managing the Atom Project and the International Security Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School. His research focuses on nuclear arms control, nonproliferation, missile defense, and hypersonic weapons. He received his PhD (2014) in Science, Technology, and International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States.

Fumihiko Yoshida (Japan) has served as Executive Director of Programs at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and taught at the International Christian University in Tokyo. He was Deputy Director of the Editorial Board of the Asahi Shimbun and an editorial writer for the Asahi Shimbun with a special interest in nuclear weapons and nuclear energy issues. He served as a member of the Advisory Panel of Experts on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation for Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has a PhD in International Public Policy from Osaka University (2007).

Hui Zhang (China) is a Senior Research Associate at the Project on Managing the Atom in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his Ph.D. (1996) in nuclear physics from Beijing and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton University. His research focusses on nuclear arms control verification, fissile material safeguards and security, and nuclear fuel cycle and reprocessing policy.

Former members

Shen Dingli (China, stepped down 2010) is Professor of International Relations at Fudan University and the Deputy Dean of Fudan University's Institute of International Studies. He was also the founder and director of China's first non-government-based Program on Arms Control and Regional Security at Fudan University. He received his PhD in physics (1989) from Fudan University and did post-doctoral work in arms control at Princeton University. His research areas cover the China-U.S. security relationship, regional security and nonproliferation issues, and China's foreign and defense policies.

Morten Bremer Maerli (Norway, stepped down 2008) was a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), working on nuclear non-proliferation and the prevention of nuclear terrorism. A nuclear physicist by training, he worked at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority and was a technical consultant to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Miguel Marín Bosch (1942-2017, Mexico) had a long career in Mexico's foreign service, ending up as Deputy Minister for Asia, Africa, Europe and Multilateral Affairs. During the early 1990s, he was Mexico's Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament and chair of the Comprehensive Test Ban Negotiations during the first year of formal negotiations (1994).

Arend J. Meerburg (1939-2016, The Netherlands) was a member of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1970 until he retired in 2004. During most of that period he was engaged in multilateral arms control, including the final negotiations in Geneva of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban treaty. He was involved in the discussions in the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation, of an International Plutonium Storage regime and of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. He also was a member of the IAEA expert group on Multilateral Approaches to sensitive parts of the nuclear fuel cycle.

William Walker (UK, stepped down 2010) is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He co-authored Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium 1996: World Inventories, Capabilities and Policies (SIPRI/Oxford University Press, 1997) and authored Nuclear Entrapment: THORP and the Politics of Commitment (Institute for Public Policy Research, London, 1999) and Weapons of Mass Destruction and International Order (Adelphi Paper, 2004).