Secretary-General Announces Members of Independent Scientific Panel on Effects of Nuclear War

NEW YORK, 18 July (United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs) — On 17 July, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of an independent scientific panel of experts tasked with examining the physical effects and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale in the days, weeks and decades following a nuclear war.

The panel was established pursuant to General Assembly resolution 79/238, titled “Nuclear War Effects and Scientific Research”, and is mandated to examine “the physical effects and societal consequences” of a nuclear war “on a local, regional and planetary scale, including, inter alia, the climatic, environmental and radiological effects, and their impacts on public health, global socioeconomic systems, agriculture and ecosystems, in the days, weeks and decades following a nuclear war”.

The panel is tasked with publishing a comprehensive report on these matters, making key conclusions, and identifying areas requiring future research.  The report will be considered by the UN General Assembly at its eighty-second session in 2027.

The last cross-sectional United Nations study of this kind was undertaken almost four decades ago in 1988 (Study on the Climatic and Other Global Effects of Nuclear War, United Nations publication, Sales No. E.89.IX.1).

The panel consists of 21 members drawn from a range of scientific fields, including:  nuclear and radiation studies; atmospheric sciences and climate; environment and environmental studies; agriculture, biology and life sciences; public health and medicine; and behavioural and social sciences and applied economics.

As mandated by resolution 79/238, the Secretary-General selected members of the panel based on “their leading scientific expertise across relevant disciplines, while ensuring impartiality, and equitable geographical and gender balance”.  In selecting the panel, the Secretary-General drew on the expertise and recommendations of relevant agencies from the United Nations system.

The panel will engage the widest possible range of stakeholders, including international and regional organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, civil society, affected communities, and peoples from around the world, in order to understand local, regional and global perspectives on the effects of nuclear war.  Member States, relevant international and regional organizations and others are encouraged to support the panel’s work.

The independent Scientific Panel on the Effects of Nuclear War will consist of the following 21 members, each participating in their personal capacity:

Arlene Alves dos Reis, Head, Division of Dosimetry at the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN);

Ana María Cetto Kramis, former Deputy Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  Full research professor at the Physics Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).  Founder and current holder of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair on Science Diplomacy and Heritage at UNAM;

Manvendra K. Dubey, Senior Scientist and Fellow, Earth Systems Observations, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL);

Friederike Renate Friess, Senior Scientist, BOKU University, Department of Landscape, Water and Infrastructure, Institute of Safety and Risk Sciences;

Abel Gonzalez, Senior Adviser to the Argentina Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Olenum member of the National Academy of Sciences of Buenos Aires, the Argentine Academy of Environmental Sciences, the Argentine Academy of the Seas, and the International Nuclear Energy Academy;

Md Ahsan Habib, Professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Fellow, Chinese Academy of Sciences;

Andrew Haines, Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Co-Director World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Health;

Gi Hoon Hong, former President and Research Professor, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology;

Togzhan Kassenova, Senior Fellow, Center for Policy Research, University at Albany, State University of New York, former member of the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (ABDM);

Ausrele Kesminiene-Suonio, Senior Visiting Scientist, Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), former head of the Lithuanian Chernobyl Medical Centre;

Peter Klimek, Director of the Supply Chain Intelligence Institute, Austria, Associate Professor, Section for Science of Complex Systems, Medical University of Vienna;

Karina Meredith, Director of Environment Research and Technology at Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Adjunct Professor in the Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences school at University of New South Wales;

Thobela Nkukwana, Senior Lecturer, University of Pretoria, Sub-editor for the South African Journal of Animal Sciences, Editorial Board member and Sub-editor of Welwitschia International Journal of Agricultural Sciences;

Sébastien Philippe, research scholar at the Princeton University Program on Science and Global Security, member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;

Laura Revell, Associate Professor in Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Canterbury, member of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP) panel;

Neil Rowan, Professor, Faculty of Science and Technological Health, University of the Shannon, Adjunct Professor to the School of Medicine, Nursing and Biomedical Science at the University of Galway;

Rabia Sa’id, Professor of atmospheric and space-weather physics and a researcher at Bayero University Kano, Co-founder of Nigeria’s Association of Women Physicists;

Georgiy L. Stenchikov, Professor Emeritus at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Professor of Earth Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Earth Sciences and Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology;

Masao Tomonaga, Emeritus Director, Atomic Bomb Hospital, former Director of the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Atomic Bomb (Genbaku) Hospital, President of Nagasaki Prefecture Hibakusha Association and current President of IPPNW Nagasaki Branch.  A hibakusha from Nagasaki;

Hüseyin Yalçinkaya, Anakara University Institute of Medical Sciences, Department of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases, Veterinary Officer at the Turkish Directorate General for Food and Control/Department of Border Control for Animal and Animal Products; and

Zhao Wuwen, Professor at the Center for Strategic Studies, China Academy of Engineering Physics.

Questions regarding the panel can be addressed to:  nweffectspanel@un.org.