Congratulations to the Bulletin’s 2024 Rieser Award recipient

The Bulletin is delighted to announce Collin Van Son as the 2024 Leonard M. Rieser Award recipient for his November piece, “Dispatch from a nuclear petting zoo.”

“In his powerful piece, Collin Van Son offers a deft and often wry account of his tour of Offutt Air Force Base in Eastern Nebraska, home of the US Strategic Command,” Bulletin Editor in Chief John Mecklin said. “Stratcom is the entity responsible for maintaining and, if necessary, employing the US nuclear arsenal, and Van Son’s exploration of the lexicon used there includes light-hearted observations that have quirky undertones; three nuclear-capable aircraft, for example, are called ‘the petting zoo’ because visitors are encouraged to physically touch them. But his essay is, at its core, deeply serious, focusing on the words, images, and metaphors that, he writes, ‘speak to a deep-seated belief that nuclear weapons are natural and controllable, and therefore acceptable.’ Van Son explains why that belief needs fundamental re-examination—by voters, leaders, and nuclear experts—in precisely the type of well-argued and distinctive prose that the Rieser Award is meant to honor.”

The Rieser Award, named for former Bulletin board chair Leonard M. Rieser, is the capstone of the Bulletin’s Next Generation Program. The program was created to ensure new voices have a trusted platform to address existential challenges posed by nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies. The award includes the opportunity to speak at the Bulletin’s marquee event, Conversations Before Midnight, and a $1,000 prize.

About the author

Collin Van Son is a Denver-based writer and national security researcher. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Penn State University and a master’s degree in international security from the University of Denver, where he also earned a certificate in global environmental change and adaptation. An associate research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, he previously worked as a NASA space weather forecaster and as a science writer at the immigration law firm Getson & Schatz. In addition to his nuclear policy work, Collin is a playwright, poet, and essayist; his play Natural History was workshopped at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 2023 National Playwrights Conference, and his poetry chapbook How to Draw a Blank was published by Cathexis Northwest Press in 2020.

Learn more about the Bulletin‘s Voices of Tomorrow Program here.