Event Date/Time
Location
Bowen Hall
Bowen Hall Rm 222
Bowen Hall Rm 222
Series/Event Type
MAE Departmental Seminars
North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program poses an unprecedented challenge for nonproliferation efforts. Three decades of steady progress has given the nation an ability to produce thermonuclear weapons an deliver them via intercontinental ballistic missile. Despite visible outward achievements, experts in the West barely understand the extent of North Korea's capabilities, where key facilities are located, or how to verify disarmament even if the full extent of the program were disclosed. This seminar describes the diplomatic challenge the lies ahead and introduces research now underway in a range of engineering sub-disciplines aimed at overcoming the technical barriers to engaging North Korea.
Speaker Bio
Scott Kemp is the Class of 1943 Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, and director of MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy. In 2010 and 2011 he served as the U.S. State Department's scientific advisor responsible for planning the technical strategy for negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program. He received his B.S. in Physics from UC Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School in 2010. He is a Sloan fellow in Physics, and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2017.