About the Board of Sponsors

The Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors was first established in December 1948 by Albert Einstein, with J. Robert Oppenheimer as its first chair. Members of the Board of Sponsors are recruited by their peers from the world’s most accomplished science and security leaders to reinforce the importance of the Bulletin’s activities and publications. The Board grew out of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, which Einstein wrote, “was organized in August 1946 to support the educational activities undertaken by the various groups of atomic scientists.”

Members of the Board of Sponsors are consulted on key issues, including the setting of the Bulletin’s Doomsday Clock. Members, which have counted 40 Nobel laureates over the years, are welcome to attend all meetings.

Current Sponsors

David Baltimore

1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine


George Church

Professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Personal Genome Project


France A. Córdova

Former director of the National Science Foundation


Gareth Evans

Convenor, Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; Chair, ANU Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; Co-Chair, International Commission for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; Chancellor, Australian National University


Jerome Friedman

1990 Nobel laureate in Physics


Richard Garwin

Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York


Sheldon Glashow

1979 Nobel laureate in Physics


Brian Greene

Professor of mathematics and physics and joint director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astrophysics at Columbia University


Siegfried S. Hecker (Chair)

Director emeritus at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Dudley Herschbach

1986 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Roald Hoffmann

1981 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Pervez Hoodbhoy

Professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan


Eric Horvitz

Technical Fellow and Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft


Angela Kane

Former UN High Representative for Disarmament.


Shirley Malcom

Head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science


William Perry

Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at Stanford University


Thomas Pickering

Chairman of the Board of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service


John Polanyi

1986 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Lisa Randall

Professor of physics at Harvard University

Martin Rees

President of The Royal Society


Richard Roberts

1993 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine


Robert Rosner

Former director of Argonne National Laboratory


Roald Sagdeev

Professor of physics at the University of Maryland


Brian Schmidt

2011 Nobel laureate in Physics
Professor of astronomy at the Australian National University


Adnan Shihab-Eldin

Senior visiting research fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (Oxford, UK), and former director general of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (retired)


Jaan Tallinn

Founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa and co-founder of Future of Life Institute


Frank von Hippel

Codirector of the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs


Frank Wilczek

2004 Nobel laureate in Physics


Edward Witten

Charles Simonyi Professor of Mathematical Physics in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey


 

Past Sponsors

Ruth Adams (1923-2005)

Editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists


Paul Berg (1926-2023)

1980 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Samuel Allison (1900–1965)

First and third director of the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago


Edoardo Amaldi (1908–1989)

Secretary-general of the nascent CERN Laboratory


Robert Bacher (1905-2004)

Chair of the Division of Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology


Hans Bethe (1906-2005)

1967 Nobel laureate in Physics


Nicolaas Bloembergen (1920-2017)

1981 Nobel laureate in Physics


Detlev W. Bronk (1897–1975)

President of the National Academy of Sciences


S. Chandrasekhar (1910–1995

1983 Nobel laureate in Physics


Owen Chamberlain (1920-2006)

1959 Nobel laureate in Physics


Georges Charpak (1924-2010

1992 Nobel laureate in Physics


Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008)

Author and screenwriter


A. H. Compton (1892–1962)

1927 Nobel laureate in Physics


E. U. Condon (1902–1974)

President of the American Physical Society


James Cronin (1931-2016)

1980 Nobel laureate in Physics


Farrington Daniels (1889–1972)

President of the American Chemical Society


Jayantha Dhanapala (1938-2023)

Former United Nations Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs


Carl Djerassi, (1923-2015)

Recipient of the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology


Paul Doty (1920-2011)

Founder and director emeritus of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University


Lee A. DuBridge (1901–1994)

Director of the radiation laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Freeman Dyson (1923-2020)

1984 National Book Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction


Sam Edwards (1928-2015)

Cavendish Professor Emeritus for Theoretical Physics and former pro-vice chancellor of Cambridge University


Manfred Eigen (1927-2019)

1967 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

1921 Nobel laureate in Physics


Val Fitch (1923-2015)

1980 Nobel laureate in Physics


Brian Flowers (1924-2010)

Fellow at the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Environment Office


James Franck (1883–1964)

1925 Nobel laureate in Physics


Donald Glaser (1927-2013)

1960 Nobel laureate in Physics


Bentley Glass (1906-2005)

Academic vice president at the State University of New York, Stony Brook


Marvin Goldberger (1922-2014)

President emeritus at the California Institute of Technology


S. A. Goudsmit (1902–1978)

Senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory


Stephen W. Hawking (1942-2018)

Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author, and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.


Gerhard Herzberg (1904–1999)

1971 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994)

1964 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Howard Hiatt (1925–2024)

Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School


T. R. Hogness (1894–1976)

Director of the Institute of Radiobiology and Biophysics at the University of Chicago


Alfred Kastler (1902–1984)

1966 Nobel laureate in Physics


Henry Kendall (1926–1999)

1990 Nobel laureate in Physics


Masatoshi Koshiba (1926-2020)

2002 Nobel laureate in Physics


Lawrence M. Krauss (1954–)

Inaugural director, Origins Project, Arizona State University


Ryogo Kubo (1920–1995)

1977 recipient of the Boltzmann Medal


Leon Lederman (1922–2018)

Chair emeritus, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; 1988 Nobel laureate in Physics


F. W. Loomis (1889–1976)

Associate head of the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Reimar Lüst (1923-2020)

Former president of the Max Planck Society


Ben Mottelson (1926-2022)

1975 Nobel laureate in Physics


Philip M. Morse (1903–1985)

First director of the Brookhaven National Laboratory


Marcos Moshinsky (1921-2009)

Former chair of the Mexican Physics Society


Nevill Mott (1905–1996)

1977 Nobel laureate in Physics


H. J. Muller (1890–1967)

1946 Nobel laureate in Medicine


Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967)

Director of the Manhattan Project


W. K. H. Panofsky (1919-2007)

Director emeritus of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center


Linus Pauling (1901–1994)

1954 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


G. B. Pegram (1876–1958)

Vice president of Columbia University's School of Mines, Engineering, and Chemistry


Rudolf Peierls (1907–1995)

Manhattan Project scientist


Gerald Piel (1915-2004)

President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science


I. I. Rabi (1898–1988)

1944 Nobel laureate in Physics


Victor Rabinowitch (1934-2019)

Former senior vice president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation


Leonard Rieser (1922–1998)

Chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science


Joseph Rotblat (1908-2005)

1995 Nobel laureate in Peace


Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989)

1975 Nobel laureate in Peace


Oscar Sala (1922-2010)

Head of the Department of Nuclear Physics at the University of São Paulo


Abdus Salam (1926–1996)

1978 Nobel laureate in Physics


Julian Schwinger (1918–1994)

1965 Nobel laureate in Physics


Frederick Seitz (1911–2008)

President emeritus of Rockefeller University


John Simpson (1916–2000)

Founder of the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research


Cyril Smith (1903–1992)

Manhattan Project scientist


Leo Szilard (1898–1964)

Co-organizer of the first Pugwash conference


Toshiyuki Toyoda (1920 - 2009)

Professor emeritus of physics at Nagoya University


Edward Teller (1908–2003)

Member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's General Advisory Committee


Kosta Tsipis (1934-2020)

Former director of the Program in Science & Technology for International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Harold Urey (1893–1981)

1934 Nobel laureate in Chemistry


Steven Weinberg (1933-2021)

1979 NobellLaureate in Physics and holder of the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin


V. F. Weisskopf (1908–2002)

Cofounder of the Federation of Atomic Scientists


C. F. von Weizsäcker (1912-2007)

Director of the Max Planck Institute of Physics


Jerome Wiesner (1915–1994)

Special assistant to the president for science and technology from 1961–1964


Robert Wilson (1914–2000)

1978 Nobel laureate in Physics


Sewall Wright (1889–1988)

1966 recipient of the National Medal of Science


J. R. Zacharias (1905–1986)

Head of the Transmitter Components Division of the Radiation Laboratory