MIT: Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy

David Wright received his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics from Cornell University in 1983 and worked as a research physicist until 1988. Since then he has worked on arms control and international security issues, researching technical aspects of nuclear weapons policy, missile defense systems, missile proliferation, hypersonic weapons, and space weapons. From 1992 to 2020 he was a researcher with the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, serving as co-director of the program from 2002 to 2020. He also held research positions in the Defense and Arms Control/Security Studies Program at MIT, the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and the Federation of American Scientists.

From 1990 to 2019, he was a primary organizer of the International Summer Symposiums on Science and World Affairs, which fostered cooperation among scientists around the world working on arms control and security issues. In 2001, he was a co-recipient of the American Physical Society’s Joseph A. Burton Forum Award for his arms control research and his work with international scientists. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.