Jonathan B. Tucker (August 2, 1954 – July 31, 2011) was an American political scientist and expert on the

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

and

biological weapons Biological agents, also known as biological weapons or bioweapons, are pathogens used as weapons. In addition to these living or replicating pathogens, toxins and biotoxins are also included among the bio-agents. More than 1,200 different kin ...

Early life and education

Tucker was born on August 2, 1954, in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, to Deborah Tucker. Tucker earned a B.S. in biology from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and a Ph.D. in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

(focusing on defense and arms control study) from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

Career

After finishing his studies Tucker worked as an arms control specialist for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, and the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

. He was an editor at ''High Technology'' and ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'' magazines and wrote about military technologies, biotechnology, and biomedical research. Tucker was a UN weapons biological inspector in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

in February 1995. From 1996, he served as founding director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin

Center for Nonproliferation Studies Established in 1955, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies, located in Monterey, California, is a graduate institute and satellite campus of Middlebury C ...

of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and then served as a senior fellow in its Washington Office. He was a professional staff member for the bipartisan

Commission on the Prevention of WMD proliferation and terrorism The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism (commonly known as the Graham/Talent WMD Commission) of the United States Congress was set up "to assess, within 180 days, any and all of the nation's acti ...

, which published World at Risk, a volume critical of US prevention strategies for post-9/11 terrorism. In 2010, Tucker spent a semester teaching and researching at the TU Darmstadt in Germany as an endowed professor of peace and security studies, and most recently was a senior fellow at 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 1945 by a group of scient ...

in Washington, D.C.

Death

On July 31, 2011, Tucker was found dead in his home in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He was 56.

Published works

;Articles * ;Books * * (editor) * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Jonathan B 1954 births 2011 deaths Yale College alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni People related to biological warfare Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt