Lassina Zerbo is director of the International Data Centre at the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and serves as custodian of the commission’s technically sensitive information. He has played a key role in the commission’s activities regarding North Korea’s nuclear tests, Japan’s triple disaster of 2011, and the establishment of tsunami warning systems. In October 2012, he was elected the next executive secretary of the CTBTO, a position that he will assume in August 2013. Prior to joining the commission he was a research geophysicist in the private sector. In 1993, he received a doctorate in geophysics from the Université de Paris XI.