Patricia Lewis (physicist)

Last updated

Patricia Lewis 2013 at Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung in Berlin Patricia Lewis (9914623843).jpg
Patricia Lewis 2013 at Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Berlin

Patricia Lewis (born 1957) is a British and Irish nuclear physicist and arms control expert, who is currently the Research Director for International Security at Chatham House. [1] She is also currently Co-Director of the Global Commission on Internet Governance. [2] She was previously the Senior Scientist-in-Residence and Deputy Director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). She was previously the Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and the Director of VERTIC.

Contents

Biography

Birmingham University Aston Webb Hall, Birmingham University.jpg
Birmingham University

A dual national of Ireland and the United Kingdom, Lewis holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Manchester and a PhD in Nuclear Structure Physics from the University of Birmingham. In 1982, she was a special assistant in the Rehabilitation Centres for Children in Calcutta, India, and from 1983–86, she lectured in physics at the University of Auckland,in New Zealand, from where she also carried out research at the Australian National University in Canberra, and as a visiting lecturer at Imperial College London. [3]

From 1986–89, Lewis was Information Officer of the London-based Verification Technology Information Centre, and its director from 1989–1997. She was the Director or the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva 1997–2008. She was Deputy Director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, California from 2008–2012. She is a recipient of the APS Joseph A. Burton Forum Award for "outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society." Lewis was a Commissioner on the WMD (Blix) Commission, an Advisor to the Evans-Kawaguchi International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) and a member of the Ekeus Advisory Panel on Future Priorities of the OPCW.[ citation needed ]

Career

During the 1988–90 negotiations on the CFE treaty, Lewis was a consultant to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the verification of conventional force reductions in Europe. [4]

In 1989–90 Lewis was appointed British government expert to the United Nations study on the Role of the United Nations in Verification. [5] From 1990–92 she was a visiting Lecturer at Imperial College London and was the 1992-3 Elizabeth Poppleton Fellow at the Australian National University.

She was chair of the UK Gulf Syndrome Study Group. [6] She was also an external reviewer for the Canberra Commission Report on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, and a member of the Tokyo Forum for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament 1998–99. [7] From 2004 to 2006, Lewis was a Commissioner on the Weapons of Mass Destructions Commission, chaired by Hans Blix. Currently Lewis is an Advisor to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND). [8] Lewis recently[ when? ] served on the American Physical Society's Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) study on Technical Steps to Support Nuclear Arsenal Downsizing" [9]

Affiliations

Lewis is a Fellow of the British-American Project and a member of Scientists for Global Responsibility.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolf Ekéus</span> Swedish diplomat

Carl Rolf Ekéus is a Swedish diplomat. From 1978 to 1983, he was a representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and he has worked on various other disarmament committees and commissions.

Arms control is a term for international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. Historically, arms control may apply to melee weapons before the invention of firearm. Arms control is typically exercised through the use of diplomacy which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants through international treaties and agreements, although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Blix</span> Swedish politician

Hans Martin Blix is a Swedish diplomat and politician for the Liberal People's Party. He was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs (1978–1979) and later became the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. As such, Blix was the first Western representative to inspect the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union on site, and led the agency response to them. Blix was also the head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission from March 2000 to June 2003, when he was succeeded by Dimitris Perrikos. In 2002, the commission began searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, ultimately finding none. On 17 March 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush delivered an address from the White House announcing that within 48 hours, the United States would invade Iraq unless Saddam Hussein would leave. Bush then ordered all of the weapons inspectors, including Blix's team, to leave Iraq so that America and its allies could invade Iraq on 20 March. In February 2010, Blix became head of the United Arab Emirates' advisory board for its nuclear power program. He is the former president of the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conference on Disarmament</span> Multilateral disarmament forum

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is a multilateral disarmament forum established by the international community to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements based at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Conference meets annually in three separate sessions in Geneva.

William C. Potter is Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies and Founding Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). He also directs the MIIS Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockholm International Peace Research Institute</span> Research institute in Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well as disarmament and arms control. The research is based on open sources and is directed to decision-makers, researchers, media and the interested public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Wolfsthal</span>

Jon Wolfsthal is an American national security consultant, government appointee, and columnist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey</span> International affairs school of Middlebury College (Vermont)

The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly known as the Monterey Institute of International Studies, is an American graduate school of Middlebury College, a private college in Middlebury, Vermont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research</span> Research institute of the United Nations

The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) was established in 1980 by the United Nations General Assembly to inform States and the global community on questions of international security, and to assist with disarmament efforts so as to facilitate progress toward greater security and economic and social development for all.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jayantha Dhanapala</span> Sri Lankan diplomat (1938–2023)

Jayantha Dhanapala was a Sri Lankan diplomat who served as member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and was a governing board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Dhanapala was also a distinguished member of Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka and he was the Senior Special Advisor on Foreign Relations to President Maithripala Sirisena, and was Sri Lanka's official candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations, before withdrawing from the race on 29 September 2006. From 2007 he was the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy is a Non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1995 by Rebecca Johnson, senior advisor to the United Nations' United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission chaired by Hans Blix from January 2000 to June 2003. It states as its goal "to promote effective approaches to international security, disarmament and arms control. Engaging with governments and civil society, Acronym provides reporting, analysis and strategic thinking on a range of issues relevant to peace and security, with special emphasis on treaties and multilateral initiatives."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Granoff</span>

Jonathan Granoff is an American lawyer, screenwriter and lecturer, widely known as President of the Global Security Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irma Arguello</span>

Irma Arguello is an international security expert from Argentina. She founded and chairs the Nonproliferation for Global Security Foundation, (NPSGlobal), a private, non-profit initiative oriented to help reduce risks derived from the proliferation and use of armaments, with a special emphasis on weapons of mass destruction. The organization is also devoted to building up adequate and opportune responses to such threats at all levels, in order to increase global security.

The International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament took place in Oslo on 26 and 27 February 2008. It was organized by The Government of Norway, the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority in collaboration with the NTI and the Hoover Institute. The Conference, entitled "Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons", had the purpose of building consensus between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states and about the importance of all the actions in the NPT.

Sheel Kant Sharma was the ninth Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), serving from 2008 to 2011. He is an expert on energy, and was formerly Indian envoy to Austria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Kane</span> German diplomat (born 1948)

Angela Kane is a German diplomat and was formerly the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and Under-Secretary-General for Management in the United Nations.

The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe — is an international non-governmental organisation uniting leading world-renowned experts on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, materials and delivery vehicles.

The 2010 Review Conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City from 3 to 28 May 2010. The President of the Review Conference is Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan of the Philippines. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used the opening of the conference to note that "sixty five years later, the world still lives under the nuclear shadow".

George Bunn was an American diplomat, lawyer, and nonproliferation expert. He drafted the legislation that created the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), was one of the lead U.S. negotiators of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), served as Dean of the law school at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and spent the last two decades of his career at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexei Arbatov</span>

Dr. Alexei Georgievich Arbatov, PhD is a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Head of the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), and a scholar in residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center. He is a Russian political scientist, academic, author, and former politician.

References

  1. "Patricia Lewis to Lead International Security Research". Chatham House. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  2. "Homepage | Centre for International Governance Innovation". www.cigionline.org.
  3. "Secretary-general appoints Patricia Lewis of United Kingdom to head UN Institute for Disarmament Research". Press Release. United Nations. 2 July 1997. SG/A/641 and DC/2587. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  4. Arms and Disarmament: A Woman’s Issue, University of Texas at Dallas
  5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 February 2006. Retrieved 15 March 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. FAS CWC bulletin #28
  7. "The Report of the Tokyo Forum for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament". Archived from the original on 24 October 2004. Retrieved 15 March 2006.
  8. "International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament". www.icnnd.org.
  9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)