Charles D. Ferguson

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Charles Daniel Ferguson II is an American physicist and science official. He has been Director of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences since 2017 . He was previously President of the Federation of American Scientists from 2010 to 2017 .

Life

Ferguson earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland in May 1987 . After graduating from the United States Naval Academy, he served as an officer on a submarine in the ballistic missile fleet and studied nuclear engineering at the Naval Nuclear Power School. From 1990 he studied physics at Boston University in Massachusetts and received the Master of Arts in May 1994 and the Ph.D. in August 1996. with the dissertation Numerical Investigations of an Earthquake Fault Based on a Cellular Automaton, Slider-Block Model . He then spent two years as a postdoc at the University of Maryland , where he worked on the application of statistical mechanics to chaotic systems .

In 1998 he left academic research to work in the political field. From 1998 to 2000 he was with the Federation of American Scientists , first as an analyst and then as director of the nuclear policy project. Since then he has worked in numerous think tanks, advisory committees and research institutes as a specialist in issues relating to nuclear proliferation and arms control in nuclear policy.

Ferguson also teaches as an adjunct professor at various universities, including the security studies program at Georgetown University , Johns Hopkins University and George Mason University .

From 2000 to 2002 he served as a physics scientist in the Office of the Chief Nuclear Safety Coordinator in the US Department of State , where he helped develop a US government policy on nuclear and general safety issues.

From 2002 to 2004 Ferguson worked as a scientist at the “Center for Nonproliferation Studies” (CNS) of the Monterey Institute . There he wrote the book "The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism" with other scientists.

From 2004–2009 he was Senior Expert on Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Project Director of the Independent Task Force on US Nuclear Weapons Policy, led by William J. Perry and Brent Scowcroft . He also specialized in the problem areas of arms control , climate change , energy policy and nuclear terrorism.

In December 2009, Ferguson was named President of the FAS. He resigned from this position in 2017 to take up a position as Director of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board at the National Academy of Sciences .

He is co-chair of the US-Japan nuclear working group.

Ferguson also advised Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Sandia National Laboratories, and the National Nuclear Security Administration .

On the occasion of the Fukushima reactor accident in March 2011 and the subsequent nuclear debate in Japan, Ferguson also called on the US government to reconsider its nuclear policy. "The accident in Japan should prompt the US to critically review the nuclear reactors," he wrote in an article.

Ferguson is the author of numerous articles on energy policy, missile defense, nuclear arms control, nuclear energy, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear terrorism.

Honors

His report "Commercial Radioactive Sources: Surveying the Security Risks", which appeared in January 2003 and one of the first analyzes after September 11 the problem of the spread of radioactivity by weapon system such as the dangers of a " dirty bomb " ( "dirty bomb" ), won the 2003 Robert S. Landauer Lecture Award from the Health Physics Society.

In October 2008, Wired recognized him as one of the "15 people the next president should listen to."

Fonts

  • Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press, New York, May 2011.
  • with William J. Perry and Brent Scowcroft: US nuclear weapons policy. Council on Foreign Relations, New York 2009.
  • Nuclear Energy: Balancing Benefits and Risks. (Council Special Report), April 2007.
  • Preventing Catastrophic Nuclear Terrorism. CSR No. March 11, 2006 (March 2006).
  • The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism. Charles D. Ferguson and William C. Potter, June 2005.
  • Commercial Radioactive Sources: Surveying the Security Risks. 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NSRB Staff. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, accessed February 17, 2018 .
  2. ↑ A message from FAS President, Dr. Charles Ferguson. June 7, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  3. ^ Charles D. Ferguson, Professor at the Center for Security Studies (CSS).
  4. ↑ Meet Your 2014 Summer Program Faculty: Charles Ferguson. In: The Pandora Report. June 2, 2014, accessed February 17, 2018 .
  5. ^ Office of the Senior Coordinator for Nuclear Safety at the US Department of State
  6. ^ Task Force Report, led by William J. Perry, Brent Scowcroft, and Charles D. Ferguson
  7. ↑ Monica Amarelo: Charles D. Ferguson Appointed New FAS President. ( Memento from December 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) December 2, 2009.
  8. ^ Ferguson, Chairman of the US-Japan Nuclear Working Group
  9. ^ Charles D. Ferguson: US Must Learn From Japan Nuclear Crisis. July 1, 2011.
  10. ^ Robert S. Landauer, Sr., Lecturer Recipients. Health Physics Society, accessed February 9, 2018 .
  11. ^ The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To. In: Wired Magazine.
personal data
SURNAME Ferguson, Charles D.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ferguson, Charles Daniel II (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American scientist and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century