SecDef19 to chair Board of Sponsors

By Bulletin Staff | March 28, 2018

William Perry, Photo Credit: Light@11B William Perry, Photo Credit: Light@11B

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is delighted to announce that former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry is the new chair of the organization’s Board of Sponsors.

“Secretary Perry brings the scientific expertise, political skill, and deep passion needed to affect change during this tumultuous time,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the organization. “We at the Bulletin are honored to have his support and will benefit immeasurably from his leadership.”

The Board of Sponsors was established by Albert Einstein, with Robert Oppenheimer as the first chair. The Sponsors are recruited from among the world’s most accomplished science and security leaders and include 15 Nobel Laureates. The role of the Board of Sponsors is to reinforce and endorse the importance of the Bulletin’s activities and publications; it supports the organization’s Governing Board, chaired by Dr. Lee Francis, and its Science and Security Board, chaired by Prof. Robert Rosner. Perry has served on the Board of Sponsors since 2007.

Marked indelibly by the devastation in Japan that he witnessed as a young sergeant in the Army of Occupation in the immediate aftermath of World War II, Perry served as Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997, leading efforts to secure nuclear stockpiles inherited by former Soviet states and presiding over the dismantlement of more than 8,000 nuclear weapons.

In 2013, Perry created the William J. Perry Project to engage and educate the public on the dangers of nuclear weapons in the 21st century, a danger that he states is greater now than during the height of the Cold War. To this end, Perry developed a self-paced online course through Stanford University: “The Threat of Nuclear Terrorism.” The course explores historical & contemporary security issues with nuclear weapons and is open to the public.

Follow William Perry on Twitter: @SecDef19
Follow the Bulletin on Twitter: @BulletinAtomic
Read William Perry’s March 12 op/ed in the Washington Post:
“What Trump could learn from my attempts to denuclearize North Korea”

Stay informed about the issues that matter at thebulletin.org.


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