Ferhat Aziz
Ferhat Aziz is Director of the Bureau for Cooperation, Legal, and Public Relations at BATAN, which is the agency of the Indonesian government charged with executing programs to expand the beneficial applications of nuclear energy. Prior to assuming this position in 2006, he held other senior positions at BATAN including Division Head of Advanced Reactor Technology from 1999 to 2006, and Sub-Division Head of Optimization and Control Systems from 1992 through 1999. For his work with BATAN, he has been awarded both ten- and twenty-year medals of honor for outstanding public service.
Aziz holds master's degrees from Quaid Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan and North Carolina State University in physics and nuclear engineering respectively. His doctorate is in nuclear engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Frank L. “Skip” Bowman
Frank L. “Skip” Bowman is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). NEI is a policy organization that represents more than 270 domestic and international corporations and organizations involved in nuclear energy and related technologies.
Prior to joining NEI, Bowman served over 38 years in the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of Admiral. He served as Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and was the third successor to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover in that command. Bowman was also Deputy Administrator-Naval Reactors in the National Nuclear Security Administration at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In these dual positions, he was responsible for the operations of more than 100 reactors aboard the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers and submarines, four training sites, and two Department of Energy laboratories.
Bowman is a 1966 graduate of Duke University. He completed a dual master’s program in nuclear engineering and naval architecture/marine engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1973 and was elected to the Society of Sigma Xi. Bowman has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Duke University.
Bowman serves on the MIT Nuclear Engineering Visiting Committee, the Engineering Board of Visitors at Duke University, and the Nuclear Engineering Department Advisory Committee at the University of Tennessee. He also serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100, the British Petroleum U.S. Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel, and the boards of directors for the National Energy Foundation, U.S. Energy Association, American Council for Capital Formation, and the Armed Services YMCA of the USA. In 2006, Bowman was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his commitment in support of the Royal Navy submarines program.
Bowman is an ex officio member of the boards of directors for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, Electric Power Research Institute, and Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, and is a member of the American Nuclear Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Management Committee of the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth, Women in Nuclear, and the World Nuclear Association’s Council of Advisors.
Jeff Combs
Jeff Combs is owner and President of The Ux Consulting Company LLC (UxC). He has over 30 years experience providing economic analysis and forecasting for the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle. He is responsible for all UxC consulting and information services and publications, including The Ux Weekly and Market Outlook Reports.
Prior to joining UxC in 1994, Combs was a Senior Economist at Science Applications International Corporation, where he developed the U-PRICE model of the uranium market, and the managing editor of The Nuclear Fuel Market Quarterly. From 1975 to 1980, he served as the principal economist associated with nuclear fuel market matters for the U.S. government in his position at the Department of Energy (DOE).
During his tenure at the DOE, as well as in private industry, Combs has written and presented a number of papers at a variety of industry conferences and has been quoted in the international media as an authority on nuclear fuel markets.
In 1973, Combs earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Virginia, where he also completed his doctoral course work in economics in 1975. He is a charter member of the International Association of Energy Economics and has contributed to The Energy Journal, an academic journal for which he has also served as a referee.
Charles B. Curtis
Charles B. Curtis is the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). He previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the United Nations Foundation and was a partner in Hogan & Hartson, a Washington based law firm with domestic and international offices.
Curtis served as Under Secretary and, later, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy from February 1994 to May 1997. He was Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Energy and, among other duties, had direct programmatic responsibility for the Department’s energy, science, technology, and national security programs.
Curtis is a lawyer with over 15 years of private practice experience and more than 18 years in government service. He was a founding partner of the Washington law firm Van Ness Feldman. Curtis served as Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 1977 to 1981 and has held positions on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, and at the U.S. Treasury Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a current member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mohamed ElBaradei
Mohamed ElBaradei is currently serving his third term as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an intergovernmental organization sponsored by the United Nations. From 1984, he was a senior staff member of the IAEA Secretariat, holding a number of high-level policy positions, including that of the Agency’s Legal Adviser and subsequently the Assistant Director General for External Relations.
ElBaradei began his career in the Egyptian Diplomatic Service in 1964, serving in the Permanent Missions of Egypt to the United Nations in New York and Geneva in charge of political, legal, and arms control issues. From 1974 to 1978, he was a Special Assistant to the Foreign Minister of Egypt and a member of various presidential and ministerial bilateral delegations including the negotiating team that led to the conclusion of the disengagement agreements between Egypt and Israel. In 1980, he left the Diplomatic Service to join the United Nations and became a Senior Fellow in charge of the International Law Program at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. From 1981 to 1987, he was also an Adjunct Professor of International Law at the New York University School of Law.
During his career as diplomat, international civil servant and scholar, ElBaradei has become intimately involved with the work and processes of international organizations, particularly in the fields of international peace and security, and international development. He has lectured widely in the fields of international law, international organizations, arms control, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy; has authored various articles and books; and belongs to a number of professional associations.
In October 2005, ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to prevent military use of nuclear energy and to ensure the safe use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. In its citation, the Nobel Committee referred to the importance of IAEA’s work calling ElBaradei an “unafraid advocate” of new measures to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
ElBaradei received his Bachelor�s degree in Law in 1962 at the University of Cairo and a Doctorate in International Law from the New York University School of Law in 1974. He has received multiple awards for his work as a public servant and as an advocate of tolerance, humanity, and freedom; has been awarded honoris causa degrees from various universities; and has received a number of decorations, including the Greatest Nile Collar - the highest Egyptian civilian decoration.
Nabil Fahmy
Nabil Fahmy became Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United States on November 29, 1999. Throughout his distinguished career, Fahmy has focused on curbing nuclear proliferation and has written numerous books and articles on the subject.
Ambassador Fahmy began his career in 1974 in the cabinet of the Secretary of the President for External Communications. From 1975-1976, he was a political officer in the cabinet of the Vice President. In 1976, he began his work in the cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 1978-1982, he was the Second Secretary of the Egyptian Mission to the United Nations' Conference on Disarmament. He continued his work on disarmament and peaceful nuclear energy issues with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1982-1984. In 1986, he became the First Secretary to the United Nations (U.N.) and later counselor, where he worked on disarmament issues. In 1991, he became the senior disarmament official for the Department of International Organizations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He quickly rose to the position of counselor and remained there until 1995.
In 1997, Fahmy was appointed Ambassador to Japan, a position that he held until 1999, In January of 1999, he became a member of the U.N. Secretary General's Advisory on Disarmament Matters.
Fahmy holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees from the American University in Cairo.
Laura S. H. Holgate
Laura S. H. Holgate is the Vice President for Russia/New Independent States (NIS) Programs, at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). She joined NTI after serving in a number of senior positions in the federal government. She managed the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program at the U.S. Department of Defense, which provides assistance to Russia and the new independent states in securing and destroying excess nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and materials. She also served as Director of the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Holgate has received numerous public service awards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. She is President of Women in International Security and sits on advisory panels of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Raymond J. Juzaitis
Raymond J. Juzaitis assumed the role of Department Head of the Nuclear Engineering Division of Texas A&M's College of Engineering in 2007. Prior to moving to Texas A&M, he was Associate Director of Nonproliferation, Homeland and International Security (NHI) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). In this role, he was responsible for organizations that provide expertise, analyses, and systems solutions to preclude the spread or use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Major areas of program emphasis included nonproliferation and global nuclear materials management, radiological, nuclear, chemical, and biological countermeasures, infrastructure and force protection, and international assessments.
Juzaitis' career with the national laboratories spanned nearly 30 years as a nuclear and chemical engineer with extensive experience in weapons and computational physics. Prior to joining LLNL's nonproliferation program in 2004, he was at Los Alamos National Laboratory, first as a doctoral researcher, then as a staff scientist in the weapons program, and later holding various senior management positions, most recently Associate Director for Weapons Physics. During his Los Alamos tenure, he also held several senior advisory positions on assignment. From 1998 to 1999, he served as Senior Technical Advisor for the Office of Defense Programs, Department of Energy; and from 1988-1990, he was Special Scientific Advisor to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy. His early career research interests included uranium enrichment technologies, computational nuclear reactor physics, and radiation transport simulation and analysis.
Juzaitis is the recipient of three DoE Weapons Excellence Awards and is a member of the American Nuclear Society. He received his B.S.E. (1974) in chemical engineering from Princeton University and his M.E. (1976) and Ph.D. (1980) in nuclear engineering from the University of Virginia.
William Potter
William Potter is Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferations Studies and Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). He is the author or editor of fourteen books, the most recent of which is the The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism (2005). Potter has been a member of numerous committees of the National Academy of Sciences and currently serves on the Nonproliferation Panel of the Academy's Committee on International Security and Arms Control. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy, and served for five years on the U.N. Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Research. He currently serves on the International Advisory Board of the Center for Policy Studies in Russia (Moscow). He was an advisor to the delegation of Kyrgyzstan to the 1995 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review and Extension Conference and to the 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2007 sessions of the NPT Preparatory Committee, as well as to the 2000 and 2005 NPT Review Conferences.
Tariq Rauf
Tariq Rauf is the Head of Verification and Security Policy Coordination in the Office of External Relations and Policy Coordination at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA.) His office is responsible for negotiating safeguard agreements and additional protocols intended to prevent states from diverting material from peaceful uses to military applications.
Rauf brings many years of expertise in the domain of nonproliferation to his work for the IAEA. Before moving to Vienna to work for the IAEA, he was Director of the International Organizations and Nonproliferation Project at the Monterey Institute of International Studies’ Center for Nonproliferation Studies. He served as an advisor with Canada’s delegations to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty beginning in 1990. Rauf has published articles on various aspects of nonproliferation including the NPT review process, disarmament, and multilateral fuel cycle programs in such publications as The Nonproliferation Review and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Thomas E. Shea
Thomas E. Shea is Director of the Global Nuclear Policy Forum at World Nuclear University (WNU). He is currently pursuing measures to stimulate the global expansion of nuclear power to moderate the impacts of global warming, stimulate economic growth in the developing areas of the world, and strengthen the international nuclear nonproliferation regime.
Prior to joining WNU in August of 2007, Shea served as Chief Nonproliferation Scientist at the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security and as the Director of Defense for Nuclear Nonproliferation Programs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Earlier, at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards Department, Shea developed safeguards policy and implementation arrangements for plutonium processing and use facilities and for uranium enrichment and other facilities. He headed the IAEA Trilateral Initiative to develop an IAEA verification system for weapon-origin fissile material released from military use and IAEA fissile material cutoff treaty studies.
Shea was awarded a Special Fellowship from the United States Atomic Energy Commission and received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) and received the 2007 INMM Distinguished Service Award. He was elected as a member of the International Nuclear Energy Academy in 2007.
Leonardo J. Sobehart
Leonardo J. Sobehart is a professor of nuclear engineering at the Balseiro Institute, a component of the National University of Cuyo supported by the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina. The Balseiro Institute offers degrees in physics, medical physics, and nuclear and mechanical engineering.
Sobehart's professional activities have spanned the domains of engineering, law, and commerce. He headed the legal division of INVAP (INVestigaciones Aplicadas Sociedad del Estado), Argentina's leading nuclear technology development firm. In addition to his credentials as an engineer, he holds degrees in law and business administration from the National University of Buenos Aires.
Previously, Sobehart was deputy chairman of the Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Argentina. He was an alternative representative of the nation of Argentina to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He served as a member of the Liaison Committee for the Safeguards Agreement between Argentina, Brazil, ABACC (the Brazil-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Material), and the IAEA, and coordinated the Argentine Support Program for the Safeguards Agreement.
Sobehart is a member of the Nuclear Group of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), and of the Program Committee of the 12th Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association to be held in Buenos Aires in October of 2008.
Richard J. K. Stratford
Richard J. K. Stratford is Director of the Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs in the Bureau of Nonproliferation in the U.S. Department of State. He is responsible for guidance on international nuclear affairs, nuclear safeguards, nuclear export control policies, nuclear cooperation agreements, and international initiatives on nuclear energy technology. He frequently has served as a U.S. delegate to meetings of the IAEA Board of Governors and the General Conference.
Stratford is the U.S. Head of Delegation to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the NSG’s Dual-Use Regime, and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Exporters Committee. Additionally, he was the U.S. Head of Delegation and Chief Negotiator of the Nuclear Safety Convention and the Convention on the Safe Management of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste. From 1987 to 1993, he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Nuclear Energy and Energy Technology Affairs in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. From 1982 to 1987, Stratford was the Executive Assistant to the Ambassador-at-Large and Special Adviser to the Secretary on Nonproliferation Policy and Nuclear Energy Affairs.
Prior to his service in the Department of State, Stratford was an associate with the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson dealing primarily with energy regulatory and development matters. From 1975-78, he was Special Council with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Stratford received his B.S. degree in Public Administration from Georgetown University in 1970, and his J.D. from American University in 1974.