Prize Recipient

David C. Wright
UCS/MIT

Citation:

"For creative and sustained leadership in building an international arms-control-physics community and for their own excellence in arms-control physics."

Background:

David Wright received his BA (1976) and MS (1978) in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics from Cornell University (1983). He held physics post-docs at Ohio State University (1983-5) and the University of Pennsylvania (1985-7). In the fall of 1997, he was awarded an SSRC-MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in International Peace and Security, which he deferred for a year to return to Cornell for 1987-8 to work on physics.

Since 1988, he has worked full-time on technical aspects of international security issues, at the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University (1988-90) and the Federation of American Scientists (1990-2). Since 1992, he has held joint positions as a Senior Staff Scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists and a Research Fellow in the Security Studies Program at MIT.

Wright has authored or co-authored a number of physics publications, including two Reviews of Modern Physics articles, and numerous articles on international security. He is an associate editor of Science and Global Security. His current research includes technical analysis of ballistic missile proliferation and ballistic missile defenses. Since 1990 he has co-organized (with Lisbeth Gronlund and George Lewis) a series of annual meetings intended to identify and train young scientists from around the world interested in technical security issues.

Selection Committee:

Anthony V Nero (Chair), David W Hafemeister, Jeremiah Sullivan ('00 Rcpnt), Robert J. Lempert (Vice Chair), Mark W. Goodman