The Bulletin is proud to welcome Alex Wellerstein as a new Senior Fellow. In this role, he will work with the Bulletin’s editorial team on historical content and new multimedia features.
“As we try to map out an uncertain future, understanding the past and present of nuclear weapons has never been more important,” says Bulletin President and CEO, Alexandra Bell, “That’s why I’m thrilled to be further incorporating Alex’s unique and invaluable perspective into our coverage.”
Prior to joining as a senior fellow, Wellerstein has written numerous pieces for the Bulletin including powerful articles like “Counting the dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” He is an associate professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, and a visiting researcher at the Nuclear Knowledges program at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po, Paris, France.
His first book, Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States was published in 2021 by the University of Chicago Press, and his second book, The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age was published by HarperCollins in late 2025.
He is the author of the blogs Restricted Data and Doomsday Machines, and the creator of the NUKEMAP, an online nuclear effects simulation tool. He received a BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002, and a PhD from the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in 2010.
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Topics: What’s New at the Bulletin
I was extremely pleased to hear of Alex Wellerstein’s appointment as the new senior fellow for The Bulletin. I have a great respect for the articles, books, and contributions in nuclear history that he has made through the years, especially the last decade. We must remember and teach nuclear history to everyone, especially our younger generations to avoid duplicating the mistakes made over the past eighty years. These mistakes include nuclear testing and the resultant geographical, environmental,, radiological, biological, and sociological damage that it caused and still haunts us today. This appointment is a perfect fit for The Bulletin and… Read more »
That is excellent news. NUKEMAP is an important tool I use in my Startegic Studies classes. His insights are very important to understanding today’s threats.