Video on Arms Control Careers
This State Dept. video provides an wide-ranging examination of careers in arms control verification. Chock-full of worthwhile advice for students and young professionals who focus on the policy and/or technical aspects of nonproliferation efforts. Interviewees include NATO Deputy Sec. General Rose Gottemoeller, former Dept. of Defense official & Goldman professor…
Class Recommendations for Fall 2016
This is a collection of Fall 2016 courses that are relevant to nuclear science and security studies for undergraduate* and graduate students. Links to course descriptions are embedded into the course titles. Please refer to www.schedule.berkeley.edu for class times and registration information. *If you are interested in a graduate level course that appears inaccessible to…
Modernization, Deterrence, and Cerutti’s Political Philosophy
In “Global Challenges for Leviathan,” Italian political philosopher Furio Cerutti considers how the existence of nuclear weapons upends the efforts of the modern state to provide meaningful security for its citizens. What is the utility of states, Cerutti asks, when the possibility of nuclear annihilation – a possibility over which…
Nuclear Policy Working Group at Michigan State University!
On November 18, the first satellite Nuclear Policy Working Group started at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. There were 23 Spartans at this very first meeting! MSU is the home of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), a world class nuclear science facility and the future home of…
The USA-ROK 123 Agreement
This blog post features reflections from Dr. Robert Borrelli, an Adjunct Professor at Diablo Valley College. Dr. Borrelli received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2006, and he maintains active interest in the impact of nuclear technology on society. This work does not reflect the opinions of…
The Ethics of Nuclear Communication & Trust
In preparation for this year’s Nuclear Science Week, I did a lot of reflecting about where nuclear technologies intersect with our daily lives. From medicine to agriculture, to manufacturing and energy, this process has been a valuable reminder of why we need nuclear technologies to begin with and why we’ve…
A Scientist’s Take on the Public Policy and Nuclear Threats (PPNT) Boot Camp
This past summer, I had the opportunity to attend the Public Policy and Nuclear Threats (PPNT) Boot Camp at the University of California San Diego. The Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (ICGG) at UC San Diego and the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC) offer this opportunity to graduate students…
Forget Philosopher-Kings, We Need Scientist-Policymakers
Of all of the pathologies plaguing Congress today—partisan gridlock, a de facto three-day workweek, a revolving door between elected officials and lobbyists— one in particular commands little attention— its lack of professional diversity. When Congress’ homogeneity receives criticism, it’s usually an indictment of the fact that most of Congress is…
2014 International Summer Symposium on Science and World Affairs
NPWG member and UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering PhD student Alexandra (Sasha) Asghari attended the 2014 International Summer Symposium on Science and World Affairs at Princeton University. The Symposium was held July 25th-August 1st and organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, partially funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York,…
Breaking the Glass Beaker: Part 1
One social science major’s foray into the national laboratories. As an undergraduate student studying Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley, I recognized the lack of opportunities for cross-disciplinary academic collaboration for undergraduates, as well as the absence of scientific background information in all of my…
NPWG Remembers Heino Nitsche
The Nuclear Policy Working Group (NPWG) lost a colleague, mentor, and beloved advisor on July 15, 2014, when Dr. Heino Nitsche, Professor in the College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, passed away in his sleep. Heino was an internationally renowned chemist and…
Safeguarding the Future at 2014 MIIS Safeguards Course
NPWG member and NSSC research assistant Adriana Ureche attended a one-week intensive course on International Nuclear Safeguards Policy and Information Analysis hosted by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in Monterey, CA on June 2-6, 2014. The course is co-hosted by…
Welcome
As global conferences engage leaders in the nuclear field at the highest political level, we recognize that the forums of the future will be populated by the young scientists and professionals of today. The millennial generation faces the most compelling of problems across the spectrum of nuclear science and security…