The IAEA at the crossroads of history (2023 David J. Rose Lecture)
Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA
Friday, September 22, 2023. 11:00AM to noon EST
MIT Samberg Conference Center, E52, 6th floor, 50 Memorial Drive
Abstract The International Atomic Energy Agency helps the international community address many of its biggest challenges, including the existential threat of climate change and the ever-present menace of nuclear weapons proliferation.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA’s Director General, will discuss the IAEA’s unique role, cutting across science, international security and development, and what it means amid today’s challenges, ranging from poverty, disease and hunger to energy insecurity, global warming and war.
Bio A diplomat with more than 35 years of experience in non-proliferation and disarmament, Rafael Mariano Grossi assumed the office of Director General of the IAEA on 3 December 2019.
Prior to this, he served as Ambassador of Argentina to Austria and Argentine Representative to the IAEA and other Vienna-based International Organizations. Mr Grossi was president-designate of the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and from 2014 to 2016 served as president of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Before this, he worked at the IAEA, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and in various positions within Argentina’s Foreign Ministry.
David J. Rose Lectureship in Nuclear Technology
This distinguished lectureship honors the memory of David J. Rose (1922–1985), a renowned professor of nuclear engineering at MIT. The lectureship was established in December 1984 on the occasion of Professor Rose’s retirement and in recognition of his work in fusion technology, energy, nuclear waste disposal, and his concern with ethical problems arising from advances in science and technology.
Professor Rose received his bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from the University of British Columbia in 1947 and his doctorate in Physics from MIT in 1950. When the Department of Nuclear Engineering at MIT was formed in 1958, David Rose was invited to join the faculty. He went on to lead the development of the Department’s program in plasmas and controlled fusion, and remained a member of the MIT faculty for the rest of his professional career.
Professor Rose’s professional life encompassed three distinguished careers: scientist and engineer; technology/policy analyst; and bridge builder between the scientific and theological communities. He authored over 150 articles ranging from high technology to theology, and with Melville Clark wrote Plasmas and Controlled Fusion, which became the standard textbook in the field of fusion energy. Professor Rose’s book, Learning About Energy, which drew on two decades of research and teaching on energy technology and policy, was published posthumously. Before joining the MIT faculty, Professor Rose was a member of the technical staff at Bell Labs. While on leave from MIT in the early 1970s he served as the first director of the Office of Long Range Planning at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was honored as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. In 1975 Professor Rose received the Arthur Holly Compton Award of the American Nuclear Society for excellence in teaching, and at MIT he was the recipient of the James R. Killian Faculty Achievement Award in 1979. In 1986, the Board of Directors of Fusion Power Associates established a prize to be presented annually for excellence in fusion engineering in honor of Professor Rose.
Department of Nuclear Science & Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Cambridge, MA 02139
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