Frank N. von Hippel (born 1937) is an American physicist. He is Professor and Co-Director of Program on Science and Global Security at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and the

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

. He is Arthur von Hippel's son, and

Eric von Hippel Eric von Hippel (born August 27, 1941) is an American economist and a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, specializing in the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation. He is best known for his work in developing the ...

's brother.

Positions held

Frank von Hippel is a

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experime ...

, and a Professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Prior to working at Princeton, he worked for ten years in the field of theoretical elementary-particle physics. In the 1980s, as chairman of the

Federation of American Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who w ...

, Von Hippel partnered with Evgenyi Velikhov in advising

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...

on the technical basis for steps to end the

nuclear arms race The nuclear arms race was an arms race competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War. During this same period, in addition to the American and Soviet nuc ...

. From 1993 to 1995, he was the Assistant Director for

National Security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military att ...

in the

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

. He now serves on the National Advisory Board of the

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Council for a Livable World is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to eliminating the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons. Its stated aim is for "progressive national security policies and helping elect congressional ca ...

, the research arm of

Council for a Livable World Council for a Livable World is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to eliminating the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons. Its stated aim is for "progressive national security policies and helping elect congressional c ...

. He is a member of the

International Panel on Fissile Materials The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), established in 2006, is a group of independent nuclear experts from 17 countries: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, Russia, South ...

Research interests

Primary areas of policy research include: nuclear arms control and

nonproliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wea ...

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

and energy issues, improving automobile fuel economy, and checks and balances in policymaking for technology. He played a major role in developing cooperative programs to increase the security of Russian nuclear-weapons-usable materials. Von Hippel and his colleagues have worked on fissile material policy issues for the past 30 years, including contributions to: "ending the U.S. program to foster the commercialization of plutonium breeder reactors, convincing President Gorbachev to embrace the idea of a Fissile Material Production Cutoff Treaty, launching the U.S.-Russian cooperative nuclear materials protection, control and accounting program, and broadening efforts to eliminate the use of high-enriched uranium in civilian reactors worldwide".

Awards and honors

* 1977, von Hippel and

Joel Primack Joel R. Primack (born July 14, 1945) is a professor of physics and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is a member of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics. Primack received his A.B. from Princeton University i ...

shared the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

's Forum Award., for their book, ''Advice and Dissent: Scientists in the Political Arena''. * 1983, elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. * 1993

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

. * 2005, he received the

George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...

Distinguished Peace Leadership Award. * 2010

Leo Szilard Lectureship Award The Leo Szilard Lectureship Award (originally called the Leo Szilard Award) is given annually by the American Physical Society (APS) for "outstanding accomplishments by physicists in promoting the use of physics for the benefit of society". It is ...

Degrees

* D. Phil. (Theoretical Physics),

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, 1962 * B.S. (Physics), M.I.T., 1959

Works

* "Scientists and the Politics of Technology", Frank von Hippel and Joel Primack, ''Applied Spectroscopy'', Vol. 25, Issue 4, pp. 403–413 (1971) * ''Advice and Dissent: Scientists in the Political Arena.'' Basic Books, 1974
"Warhead and Fissile-material Declarations"
''Reversing the arms race: how to achieve and verify deep reductions in the nuclear arsenals'', Editors Frank Von Hippel, R. Z. Sagdeev, Taylor & Francis, 1990,
"Foreword"
''Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces'', Editors Pavel Podvig, Oleg Bukharin, MIT Press, 2004,

References

External links

*http://www.princeton.edu/sgs/faculty-staff/frank-von-hippel/ homepage at Princeton {{DEFAULTSORT:Von Hippel, Frank N. 21st-century American physicists Living people American nuclear physicists Princeton University faculty United States presidential advisors Nuclear weapons policy 1937 births Fellows of the American Physical Society MacArthur Fellows American people of German-Jewish descent