Twelve Thousand Bombs: Ballistic Missile Defense with Professor Fred Lamb
Tuesday, October 8 , 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm CDT
The Twelve Thousand Bombs seminar series on nuclear weapons will continue this fall with four eminent scholars and public figures speaking at ISU. The series, sponsored by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, was inaugurated in 2023 and aims to raise awareness of nuclear weapons issues in the Bloomington-Normal community.
“Nuclear weapons will be on everyone’s radar this election cycle as Americans assess the fitness of the candidates to exercise the president’s nuclear authority,” according to Dr. Matt Caplan, the series organizer and professor in the ISU physics department. “With the U.S. preparing to spend $1.5 trillion modernizing its arsenal, nuclear weapons policy may be a defining feature of the next president’s administration. This is not an issue that can be overlooked this election.”
Professor Fred Lamb—Professor of Physics, UIUC
Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are rockets launched into space that carry nuclear weapons from one side of the planet to the other in a matter of minutes. Can the U.S., or any nation, respond to such a threat? Professor Lamb was the chair of the American Physical Society report on Ballistic Missile Defense and will tell us about the realities of missile and anti-missile technology—as well as the dangers of such “defenses.”
