School of Physics Colloquium

Title: The Increasing Peril from Nuclear Arms: and how scientists can help reduce the threat

Speaker: Stewart Prager

Host: Dan Goldman

Abstract: The danger from nuclear weapons is increasing, with a new nuclear arms race underway, a deterioration of the multi-decade arms control regime, and new destabilizing technologies. This talk will overview nuclear weapons and their effects, the current critical situation, feasible steps to reduce the nuclear threat, and a new project initiated by the American Physical Society to engage physical scientists in advocacy for nuclear threat reduction.

Bio: Stewart Prager is a professor emeritus of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, an affiliated faculty with the Program on Science and Global Security and former director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Previously, while professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, he directed the Madison Symmetric Torus experiment and the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas. His research has been in plasma physics and fusion energy, although his recent focus is on nuclear threat reduction.