COSAM News Articles 2015 April Oakberg (BS in Math, '69) to receive an honorary PhD

Oakberg (BS in Math, '69) to receive an honorary PhD

Published: 04/23/2015

Math alumnus John Oakberg (BS in Math, '69) will receive an honorary PhD in the Spring graduation ceremony (May 9, 2015). Honorary degrees are pretty unusual at Auburn and this is surely a great honor.

Oakberg is a retired Senior Information Analyst who worked in the Division of Safeguards Information Management at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. His main responsibilities were in the areas of correlating and analyzing State-supplied information related to information analysis in strengthened international safeguards and in providing expertise on nuclear material accounting and reporting with respect to the relevant provisions of safeguards agreements. He has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Auburn University and a graduate degree in computer science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee. He worked 12 years developing and implementing information systems for Union Carbide Corporation, the primary contractor at that time, for the nuclear facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In 1977-1978, Oakberg was a systems expert developing nuclear material accounting software at the IAEA. He returned to the IAEA in 1982 and was with the Agency in the Department of Safeguards until his retirement in October 2007.