Frank N. von Hippel

About Frank's Work

Frank von Hippel is a theoretical physicist whose work has contributed significantly to technology assessment and policy formation in international security and energy.

Von Hippel’s research interests include proliferation-resistant, nuclear fuel cycles, cooperative approaches to nuclear disarmament, nuclear test bans, warhead dismantlement, and improvements in automobile efficiency.  In the mid-1970s, he organized the American Physical Society’s Reactor Safety Study, which discredited the U.S. Government’s claims about the safety of civilian nuclear reactors.  He is co-author of Advice and Dissent: Scientists in the Political Arena (1974) and Citizen Scientist (1990), editor of Life in Times of Turbulent Transitions: The Memoirs of Arthur R. von Hippel (1988), and co-editor of Reversing the Arms Race: How to Achieve and Verify Deep Reductions in Nuclear Weapons (1990).  His articles have appeared in such publications as Science & Global Security and Scientific American.

Biography

Von Hippel is the Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, where he is also co-director of the Program on Science and Global Security.  He served previously as assistant director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (1993-94).

Von Hippel received a B.S. (1959) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a D.Phil. (1962) from the University of Oxford.

Last updated January 1, 2005