MIT: Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy

Lisbeth Gronlund holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University. She has worked on technical and policy issues related to nuclear weapons, missile defenses, and space weapons for over three decades. From 1992 to 2020 she worked at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program, first as a Senior Scientist and, beginning in 2002, as Co-director of the program. Prior to joining UCS, she was a research fellow at the MIT Defense and Arms Control Studies Program and at the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Maryland.

Believing that a sound democracy requires independent and well-informed critique of government policy, she has devoted her career to using her scientific background to (1) analyze U.S. nuclear weapons and missile defense programs, counter false government claims, and propose alternative plans; (2) provide information to members of Congress, the public and media; and (3) increase the scientific knowledge base relevant to these issues. She has written about technical and policy issues for both lay and expert readers and given talks about these issues to both lay and expert audiences.

Lisbeth helped establish and was a primary organizer of the International Summer Symposiums on Science and World Affairs, which each year from 1989 through 2019 brought together around 40 young scientists from around the world to learn how to apply their expertise to nuclear weapons policy and related security issues. These meetings helped foster a new generation of independent scientists with expertise on security issues.

Lisbeth is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physics Society (APS). She is the co-recipient of the 2001 Joseph A. Burton Forum Award of the APS "for creative and sustained leadership in building an international arms-control-physics community and for her excellence in arms control physics."

Selected Writings and Publications

Rethinking Land-Based Nuclear Missiles: Sensible Risk-Reduction Practices for US ICBMs, David Wright, William D. Hartung, and Lisbeth Gronlund (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, June 2020).

Memo to Congress: America Already Has Low-yield Nuclear Warheads, 8 January 2019

“We need to know where Democratic candidates stand on nuclear weapons,” Lisbeth Gronlund and David Wright, The Hill, 8 July 2019.

“The US’s Dangerous New Nuclear Policy,” Lisbeth Gronlund and Stephen Young, Aviation Week and Space Technology, 26 January 2018.

“How to limit presidential authority to order the use of nuclear weapons,” Lisbeth Gronlund, David Wright, Steve Fetter, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 23 January 2018.

Reducing the Risk of Nuclear War: Taking Nuclear Weapons Off High Alert, David Wright, Eryn MacDonald, and Lisbeth Gronlund (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, January 2016).

Bad Math on New Nuclear Weapons: The Costs of the 3+2 Plan Outweigh the Benefits, Lisbeth Gronlund, (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, October 2015).

“Finger Off the Trigger: The US and Russia need to defuse the possibility of accidental nuclear war,” Arlen Jameson and Lisbeth Gronlund, US News and World Report, 16 July 2015.

Making Smart Security Choices: The Future of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, Lisbeth Gronlund Eryn MacDonald Stephen Young Philip E. Coyle III Steve Fetter (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, March 2014).

“America, Awash in Nuclear Weapons Materials,” Lisbeth Gronlund and Eryn MacDonald Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1 March 2014.

“It's Time to Reduce Nuclear Dangers,” Richard Garwin and Lisbeth Gronlund South Bend Triune (IN), 26 February 2013, and seven other papers,

UCS-AAAS Workshop on Nuclear Stockpile Management, 29 June 2012

“Technical flaws in the Obama missile defense plan,” David Wright and Lisbeth Gronlund, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Online, 23 September 2009.

The Cart before the Horse: DOE’s Plan for the Future of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, Stephen Young and Lisbeth Gronlund (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, May 2008).

“Twenty-five years after Reagan's Star Wars speech,” Lisbeth Gronlund and David Wright, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Online, 2 April 2008.

Toward True Security: Ten Steps the Next President Should Take to Transform U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy, Bruce Blair, Thomas Cochran, Jonathan Dean, Steve Fetter, Richard Garwin, Kurt Gottfried, Lisbeth Gronlund, Henry Kelly, Hans Kristensen, Robert Nelson, Robert Norris, Ivan Oelrich, Christopher Paine, Frank von Hippel, David Wright and Stephen Young (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, February 2008).

Nuclear Power in a Warming World: Assessing the Risks, Addressing the Challenges, Lisbeth Gronlund, Ed Lyman, and David Lochbaum, (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, December 2007).

The Physics of Space Security: A Reference Manual, David Wright, Laura Grego, and Lisbeth Gronlund (Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005).

Technical Realities: An Analysis of the 2004 Deployment of a U.S. National Missile Defense System, Lisbeth Gronlund, David Wright, George Lewis, Philip Coyle (Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, May 2004).

“Estimating China’s Production of Plutonium for Weapons,” David Wright and Lisbeth Gronlund, Science and Global Security 11 (2003), pp. 61-80,

“Debunking MDA’s ‘Endgame Success’ Argument,” George N. Lewis and Lisbeth Gronlund, Arms Control Today, 32 (10) (Dec 2002).

“An Assessment of the Intercept Test Program of the Ground-Based Midcourse National Missile Defense System,” Lisbeth Gronlund, David Wright, and Stephen Young, Defense and Security Analysis 18 (3) (2002), pp. 239-260.

“The Iraqi Missile Attacks on Israel: Why Were Casualties So Low?,” Steve Fetter, George N. Lewis, and Lisbeth Gronlund, Nature 361 (28 January 1993), p. 293.

“Depressed-Trajectory SLBMs: A Technical Assessment and Arms Control Possibilities,” Lisbeth Gronlund and David Wright, Science and Global Security 3 (1992), p. 101.