Lisbeth Gronlund

Co-director and senior scientist

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Dr. Gronlund received her PhD in physics from Cornell University in 1989. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Defense and Arms Control Studies Program and an SSRC-MacArthur Foundation Fellow in International Peace and Security at the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Maryland. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society (APS), and was a recipient of the APS Joseph A. Burton Forum Award in 2001. She has been at UCS since 1992. Areas of expertise: U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons policy, nuclear terrorism and international fissile material control, ballistic missile defense. Lisbeth also blogs on the Equation.

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Lisbeth's Latest Posts

Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review: Top Take-Aways

February 2, 2018 12:58 PM EDT

The Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), just released, lays out a policy that will make the use of nuclear weapons more likely and undercut US security.

It includes a wide range of changes to US nuclear weapons policy and calls for deploying additional types of nuclear weapons. Some of these changes can take place relatively quickly—within the time remaining in President Trump’s term—and others will take years to realize. In the latter case, however, political repercussions could occur well before completion of the effort. Read more >

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Scientists to Congress: The Iran Deal is a Keeper

October 31, 2017 11:12 AM EDT

The July 2015 Iran Deal, which places strict, verified restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, is again under attack by President Trump. This time he’s kicked responsibility over to Congress to “fix” the agreement and promised that if Congress fails to do so, he will withdraw from it.

As the New York Times reported, in response to this development over 90 prominent scientists sent a letter to leading members of Congress yesterday urging them to support the Iran Deal—making the case that continued US participation will enhance US security. Read more >

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UCS Provides a Valuable Voice at NRC’s Annual Conference

March 21, 2016 1:35 PM EDT

Earlier this month, UCS’s two nuclear power experts—Dave Lochbaum and Ed Lyman—took part in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) 28th annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC). The RIC, held on March 8-10, was attended by some 2,800 people. Most were from the NRC and the nuclear industry, but also in attendance were roughly ten members of the public and staff from public-interest organizations. Read more >

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U.S. Plays Word Games in Statement about Alert Level of Nuclear Weapons

May 7, 2015 2:11 PM EDT

On Tuesday, the U.S. delegation to the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in New York issued a statement on the alert level of U.S. nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, the statement is disingenuous and misleading, and relies on word games to obfuscate the real issues. It inappropriately seeks to dispel NPT delegates’ concerns about the U.S. practice of keeping nuclear missiles ready to be launched within minutes, giving the president the option of launching these missiles based on warning of an incoming attack. Read more >

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Penny Wise & Pound Foolish: Cuts to Basic Science at the Weapons Labs

October 18, 2013 6:00 AM EDT

The U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories have a program that allows their scientists and other researchers to conduct independent research and development (R&D) on subjects unrelated to the primary missions of the labs. This program—the Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program—allows the labs to set aside up to 8% of their budgets each year for such R&D. Grants are awarded competitively, and funded by overhead charged by each laboratory to both its DOE and non-DOE sponsors. Read more >

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