Nobel Peace Prize winner and COSAM alumnus to speak on “International Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Non-Proliferation”

COSAM alumnus and Nobel Peace Prize winner John Oakberg, mathematics ’69, will give a presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 27, titled, “The International Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Non-Proliferation – With a Personal Perspective on Current Events Related to Iran.” The lecture is open to the public and will take place on campus in 115 Sciences Center Classrooms Building at 3:30 p.m. Prior to the lecture, refreshments will be served beginning at 3:15 p.m.

Oakberg was part of a team of scientists at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to receive the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. The award was presented for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest way possible.

He began his career at Union Carbide Corporation’s Nuclear Division in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and in 1976 he accepted a position at the International Atomic Energy Agency as a systems expert developing nuclear material accounting software. He stayed at IAEA for one year. He then worked from 1978-1982 in software development and had special safeguards project responsibilities at the U.S. national safeguards level. 

In 1982 he began working for the International Atomic Energy Agency again, where he retired in 2007 as a senior information analyst in the Division of Safeguards Information Management. His primary responsibilities were in the areas of correlating and analyzing state-supplied information related to information analysis in strengthening international safeguards, and in providing expertise on nuclear material accounting and reporting with respect to the relevant provisions of safeguards agreements.

In addition to an undergraduate degree from Auburn, Oakberg received a master of science in computer science from the University of Tennessee, and, last spring, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Auburn University.

Although technically retired, Oakberg continues to work as a senior nuclear safeguards consultant, providing expertise and technical consulting services in the area of international nuclear safeguards for the IAEA and for the U.S. Government on a wide variety of subject areas including nuclear material accountancy and reporting, additional protocol declarations, personnel training, information management, and documentation.

For more information, contact Candis Birchfield at ceh0012@auburn.edu.