"Jay Zucca is Program Director for Non-proliferation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, United States. A geophysicist by profession, Zucca is actively involved in nuclear weapons issues, in particular in the field of nuclear monitoring, seismic instrumentation development and regional seismology. Zucca was a member of the U.S. delegation when the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was being negotiated at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva in the mid-1990s. For many years he has played an active role in the decision-making bodies of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in the field of Technology Refreshment, making sure that the technologies used to detect clandestine nuclear tests remain state-of-the-art.In an interview with the CTBTO during the Science & Technology Conference 2011, Zucca focused on the important contributions of the Technology Foresight programme, which aims at identifying emerging technologies for test-ban verification. The Technology Foresight online conference takes place from 16 to 18 October: http://tfcs.ctbto.org/display/TechWatchC1/Online+Conference More on the 2011 Science & Technology conference: http://www.ctbto.org/specials/ctbt-science-and-technology-20118-10-june-2011-vienna-austria/ctbt-science-and-technology-2011/"

"INENS is a young and dynamic organization for young professionals in the nuclear field. Founded in 2010, it already has some 400 members from 55 different countries and is rapidly expanding. The network aims to facilitate dialogue among emerging nuclear specialists in order to foster better understanding of the different issues within the field, and to develop new insights, be it policy, academia, science or industry. INENS Executive Director, Meena Singelee, is a founder member of the organization. As a student, she interned with a number of think tanks, including the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC).During a visit to Vienna for the May 2012 Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, Singelee spoke to CTBTO Faces about INENS' work and its vision for the future."

"With over five decades of involvement in nuclear weapons technology, Richard Garwin has advised U.S. administrations - both Republican and Democrat - on a range of issues including the safety of nuclear weapons and arms control. Garwin has spent much of his career promoting nuclear disarmament and warning about the need to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Garwin testified before the U.S. Senate in 1999, when the issue of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was discussed: ""I agree with those U.S. military leaders who have reviewed the benefits and costs to U.S. security from a CTBT and strongly support the Treaty. Our national security will be improved by ratification and impaired by further delay.""In his interview at the Science & Technology Conference 2011 hosted by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), he talks about the evolution of test-ban verification technologies and why he thinks that the CTBT is effectively verifiable.--- More on the 2011 Science & Technology conference: http://www.ctbto.org/specials/ctbt-science-and-technology-20118-10-june-2011-vienna-austria/ctbt-science-and-technology-2011/"

"Philip Taubman is a journalist, author and two-time winner of the George Polk Award. For more than 30 years, he worked for The New York Times, including as bureau chief for the Washington and Moscow offices. Taubman is now Consulting Professor at the Center of International Security and Cooperation of Stanford University. He has authored two books: ""Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage"" and ""The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb"".This interview was conducted on 27 September 2012 at the 'Reykjavik' event organized by the CTBTO in New York, where Taubman moderated a panel discussion. Taubman recalls his experience as a reporter at the 1986 Reykjavik Summit, during which Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev came close to an historic agreement on abolishing all nuclear weapons. He remembers the two leaders' disappointment after that goal had eluded them, and explains why Reykjavik was nonetheless a milestone for nuclear arms control."

"Frank von Hippel is a nuclear physicist who has worked on nuclear policy issues for more than 40 years. During the 1980s, he worked closely with Evgeny Velikhov, Mikhail Gorbachev's science advisor, to help establish the technical basis for new arms-control and disarmament initiatives. From September 1993 through 1994, while Assistant Director for National Security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, von Hippel played a major role in developing cooperative programs to increase the security of Russian nuclear-weapons-useable materials. Today, he co-chairs the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM).Talking to CTBTO Faces during a visit to the May 2012 Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, von Hippel reflected on the issues that have driven his long and successful career."

"Ellen Williams is an American physicist and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, specializing in condensed matter and surface physics. Williams chaired the Committee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which reviewed technical issues related to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The Committee's report was released in March 2012. She currently works as chief scientist at British/Beyond Petroleum.Williams spoke with the CTBTO during a CTBT Intensive Policy Course organized by the CTBTO in July 2012. In her interview, she explains the background and genesis of the recent NAS report on the CTBT and outlines its main outcomes, including how the CTBT verification regime was found to exceed the expectations at the time of its conception."

"Alyn Ware trained as a kindergarten teacher in New Zealand before establishing peace education programmes in pre-school, primary and secondary schools, and helping establish peace education as part of the national curriculum. He was active in the campaigns to end nuclear tests in the Pacific and to create a nuclear-free-zone in New Zealand. Since the late 1980s, Ware has worked internationally, advancing disarmament education and nuclear disarmament initiatives at the United Nations, in parliaments and universities around the world, and through international civil society organizations. He has worked diligently to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Ware is currently the Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.While in Vienna to attend the May 2012 Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, Ware discussed his life and work with CTBTO Faces."

"Prior to his current position, Bharath Gopalaswamy was a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Programme. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Numerical Acoustics from Trinity College, Dublin, and was a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University's Peace Studies Program, where he applied his technical knowledge to international security issues.Gopalaswamy talked to CTBTO Faces in June 2012 while in Vienna to attend a seminar organized by the CTBTO as part of its Capacity Development Initiative (CDI)."

"Wolfgang Weiss currently chairs the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Weiss, a physicist by training, was the driving force behind the creation of a national environmental radiological surveillance system in Germany after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Today, he heads the Department of Radiation Protection and Health of the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection. He was involved in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) as a member of the German delegation when the Treaty was being negotiated at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva in the mid-1990s.Weiss spoke to the CTBTO on the margins of the Science & Technology Conference 2011, where he was a panellist in the special session on the Fukushima nuclear accident. In his interview, he emphasizes the importance of CTBTO data as a first-hand source of information on radioactive emissions from nuclear accidents. --- More on the 2011 Science & Technology conference: http://www.ctbto.org/specials/ctbt-science-and-technology-20118-10-june-2011-vienna-austria/ctbt-science-and-technology-2011/Disclaimer: The views expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CTBTO."

"Mikhail Gorbachev was Soviet Union's last head of State until its dissolution in 1991. Both his internal reforms (Glasnost and Perestroika) and his new approach to international détente, in particular his pursuit of far-reaching nuclear disarmament measures, played an important role in ending the Cold War. The summit of Reykjavik, Iceland, from 11 to 12 October 1986, was the second meeting between Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan. As we now know from declassified documents, the two leaders came close to an agreement to abolish all nuclear weapons.On the eve of the summit's 26th anniversary, Gorbachev reflects on the paradigm shift that Reykjavik brought about and on the status of nuclear weapons today. The dramatic moments of this summit were recently re-enacted in the staged reading of the play 'Reykjavik' by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes in New York on 27 September 2012: http://www.ctbto.org/specials/reykjavik-in-the-spotlight/Disclaimer: The views expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CTBTO."