Princeton Co-Chair, International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM)

Frank von Hippel has a PhD in nuclear physics (1962). He is co-Director of Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security.

In the 1980s, as chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, he partnered with Evgenyi Velikhov in advising Mikhail Gorbachev on the technical basis for steps to end the nuclear arms race. In 1994-5, he served as Assistant Director for National Security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Von Hippel and his colleagues have worked on fissile material policy issues for the past 30 years, including contributions to: ending the U.S. program to foster the commercialization of plutonium breeder reactors, convincing President Gorbachev to embrace the idea of a Fissile Material Production Cutoff Treaty, launching the U.S.-Russian cooperative nuclear materials protection, control and accounting program, and broadening efforts to eliminate the use of high-enriched uranium in civilian reactors worldwide.