Twelve Thousand Bombs: Nuclear Fusion with Professor Stewart Prager
Tuesday, October 22 , 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 Stewart Prager—Professor of Physics, Princeton University, Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (2008–2016)
Where are the borders between nuclear science, nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons? Just how much science is done invisibly in service of nuclear weapons, and how can scientists reduce the nuclear threat? Professor Prager is a plasma physicist specializing in nuclear fusion, who has since 2018 dedicated his efforts to mobilizing scientists with the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction.
