Dan is managing director and senior policy advisor at MIT’s Policy Lab at the Center for International Studies. The Policy Lab works with faculty and researchers at MIT to ensure that policy-relevant research makes its way into the hands of appropriate policymakers. Dan came to MIT in 2014 to help launch and now run this program. He also serves on the external advisory board and steering committees of a number of programs designed to increase civic engagement and expand career opportunities for scientists, including Harvard Medical School’s Scientific Citizenship Initiative, Boston University’s Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training program, and the Engaging Scientists & Engineers in Policy Coalition. Dan also has extensive experience in grassroots political organizing, running volunteer LGBT rights campaigns and professionally directing field offices during the 2008 elections. He received his PhD in physics from Brandeis University, studying high-energy physics as part of the ATLAS experiment at CERN. He then served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the office of Senator Edward J. Markey.

I am most excited to work on projects that… create common cause among politically polarized communities.

I am looking for partners that can help me… scale ideas to reach audiences beyond my social bubble.

A moment when I felt most inspired in my work was… when I was given the opportunity to apply my background in physics as a science and technology policy advisor to a US senator.

Innovations in my field that I am most excited to work on… are programs to incentivize academics to engage more with policymakers and society at large.

Chantell specializes in nuclear nonproliferation analysis of advanced nuclear fuel cycle systems. She has carried out this work as a nuclear security postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and as a graduate research assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). During her time at LANL, she investigated nuclear safeguards approaches for pyroprocessing facilities, research reactors and critical assemblies, and thorium fueled reactors. She also helped develop an acquisition path analysis methodology for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Chantell has served as a visiting scientist at the Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany and as an intern at the Managing the Atom project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and worked for the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. She earned her PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2018, and holds a MS in health physics from Georgetown University and a BS in physics from Florida State University.

I am most excited to work on projects that… use unconventional methods to solve traditional problems.

I am looking for partners that can help me… create artistic projects to reach new audiences.

A moment when I felt most inspired in my work was… when I was connecting with colleagues from very different cultures on a personal level while collaborating to solve large global problems.

Innovations in my field that I am most excited to work on… involve applying ethics and empathy in the decision-making process.

Colleen is the digital engagement manager for Global Zero and Beyond the Bomb, writing and creating content to promote the message of eliminating nuclear weapons. She got her start in activism as an anti-war organizer in college, working for a just US foreign policy and pushing for peace and justice in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Prior to joining Global Zero and Beyond the Bomb in 2018, she worked at Win Without War, Seeds of Peace, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, and Peace Action New York State. Colleen has bachelor’s degrees in political science and international relations from Hobart and William Smith colleges, and a master’s in international relations from American University. While in graduate school, she wrote her master’s thesis on the effects of transitional justice on the Global Peace Index in North Africa.

I am most excited to work on projects that… connect domestic activism to foreign policy.

I am looking for partners that can help me… go beyond the nuclear policy field to work with other movements.

A moment when I felt most inspired in my work was… seeing Beyond the Bomb’s “No First Use” campaign garner a question during the Democratic debates in July 2019.

Innovations in my field that I am most excited to work on… include using new advances in technology to spread the message of eliminating nuclear weapons.

Danielle is an author, attorney, and legal and political commentator who appears across US and international media including Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, TVNZ, TV3 New Zealand, and BBC World. Danielle is a columnist for her native New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times and a contributor to the Sean Hannity Radio Show. Her legal scholarship focuses on important constitutional issues including the scope of the president’s power, reproductive rights, immigration, LGBTQ rights, consumer rights, property rights and eminent domain, and the tension between international law and sovereignty. Danielle co-wrote The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals, which was reviewed favorably by The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Washington Review of Books, and the L.A. Review of Books. Her legal practice focuses on white collar investigations and complex commercial litigation. In a former life she was a PR executive and a consulting engineer.

I am most excited to work on projects that… Bridge the partisan divide in service of our common challenges. I believe that our democracy depends on conversations across political, generational, geographic, and ideological lines. I want to facilitate those conversations to ensure we are all listening to and learning from one another.

I am looking for partners that can help me… see the world more fully. Learn about issues I care about. Better understand (and help to solve) complex problems.

A moment when I felt most inspired in my work was… understanding that my love of storytelling could manifest itself across a multitude of professional endeavors.

Innovations in my field that I am most excited to work on… embrace the growing notion of a lawyer as a problem-solver and advocate who can contribute, far beyond legal advice, to a wide array of organizations and issues.

Niamh is an incoming PhD student at University College London’s new Centre for Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity, where her research will focus on the intersections of nuclear weapons and cyber. Previously she worked as a researcher at Ridgeway Information, a London-based research consultancy, leading work on nonproliferation in East Asia. Niamh holds an MA in national security studies from King’s College London and a BA in European and international law from the University of Oxford. During her MA, Niamh worked on nuclear safeguards and counter-proliferation at Project Alpha. Outside of work, Niamh volunteers for a homelessness and housing project that focuses on participatory and inclusive approaches to housing policy. She also likes reading, vegan cooking experiments, and exploring London’s best indie music venues.

I am most excited to work on projects that… are conscious of the impact of domestic politics on nuclear issues.

I am looking for partners that can help me… broaden my perspective on nuclear risk and think about ways to leverage challenging moments into future progress.

A moment when I felt most inspired in my work was… visiting the EU’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra and seeing, firsthand, the incredible innovations in verification that multilateral research can produce.

Innovations in my field that I am most excited to work on… incorporate underappreciated perspectives on old-hat issues.

Sarah serves as an advisor on policy and training topics to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) National Security Directorate. In this capacity, she explores the policy implications of PNNL’s technical solutions, focusing on the impact emerging technologies will have on US government nonproliferation missions. Her work has focused on synthetic biology, distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, data privacy, and cybersecurity. She specializes in international safeguards policy and implementation, state systems of accounting for and control of nuclear material development, and nuclear infrastructure development.

Before joining PNNL, Sarah was deputy team lead in the International Nuclear Safeguards and Engagement Program and a Nonproliferation Graduate Program fellow at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Prior to that, she was a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an investigative reporter covering national security issues at the National Security New Service in Washington, DC, and a White House intern. She holds degrees from Colby College and Georgetown University.

I am most excited to work on projects that… enable me to work with a variety of experts on topics that have the potential to dramatically improve the nonproliferation system.

I am looking for partners that can help me… connect dots with other disciplines, topics, and technologies in creative ways.

A moment when I felt most inspired in my work was… when I worked with a fully functioning team to solve a tricky policy/technology problem.

Innovations in my field that I am most excited to work on… are those that either disrupt or have the potential to disrupt how we currently act and think.