Executive Director, Managing the Atom

As most of you know already, I am leaving the University of Maryland to become the Executive Director of the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

It is hard to express how excited I am by this opportunity and saddened to leave so many friends in Washington.

Here is the official announcement:

ARMS CONTROL EXPERT JEFFREY LEWIS NAMED DIRECTOR OF MANAGING THE ATOM PROJECT

Cambridge, Mass.—Dr. Jeffrey Lewis has been named as the Executive Director of the Managing the Atom Project, the principal research team focused on nuclear proliferation, nuclear arms control, and nuclear energy policy at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Dr. Lewis will join the Belfer Center on March 9.

Lewis most recently served as a research fellow at the Center for
International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy (CISSM). His research there focused on China’s nuclear weapons policies and the military uses of outer space. Dr. Lewis founded and maintains the leading blog on nuclear arms control and nonproliferation, ArmsControlWonk.com, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. MIT Press will publish Dr. Lewis’ book, The Minimum Means of Reprisal: China’s Search for Security in the Nuclear Age, in July. He received his PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park and his BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.

Lewis will coordinate the efforts of the faculty, staff, and fellows who make up the Managing the Atom Project. The project brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars and former government officials to conduct policy-relevant research on key strategic issues related to the future of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The Managing the Atom Project is a cooperative project of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, the International Security Program, and the Energy and Natural Resources Program within the Belfer Center in Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Program Directors John Holdren, Stephen Miller, and Henry Lee, respectively, serve as Co-Principal Investigators of Managing the Atom.

“Jeffrey’s outstanding analytical skills and his demonstrated enthusiasm for the work we do will make him a wonderful addition to the team,” Holdren said. “We are honored to have him as a colleague and look forward to his contributions.”

“The MTA project has conducted unparalleled work in the field of arms control and nonproliferaiton,” said Lewis. “I look forward to helping these outstanding scholars bring innovative ideas to the forefront of the policy debate.”

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On a related note, I will be moving over the weekend of March 3-7, so Victoria Samson will be holding down the fort in my absence.