Chatham House

Dr Patricia M Lewis is the Research Director, International Security at Chatham House. Her former posts include Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the Center for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; Director of UNIDIR; and Director of VERTIC in London.

Dr Lewis served on the 2004-6 WMD Commission chaired by Dr Hans Blix; the 2010-2011 Advisory Panel on Future Priorities of the OPCW chaired by Ambassador Rolf Ekeus; and was an adviser to the 2008-10 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) chaired by Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi.

She holds a BSc (Hons) in physics from Manchester University and a PhD in nuclear physics from the Birmingham University. She is a dual national of the UK and Ireland.

Dr Lewis is the recipient of the American Physical Society’s 2009 Joseph A Burton Forum Award recognizing ‘outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society.

John is chief of research at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Since joining UNIDIR in 2004 John has managed and led research projects on a range of topics related to international security, particularly on arms control, humanitarian law and disarmament, and he has published widely.

His current work focuses on issues related to nuclear weapons, the autonomous weapons, drones, and the use of explosive weapons use in populated areas.

He is also a member of a United Nations expert group on the weaponization of increasingly autonomous technologies.

Prior to joining UNIDIR, John worked in the arms unit of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and before that was deputy for disarmament at the New Zealand Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva from 1999 to 2002.

He received his DPhil from University of Bradford, and a BA (Hons) from the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand.

Irma founded and chairs the Nonproliferation for Global Security Foundation, a private, non-profit initiative oriented to help reduce risks derived from the proliferation and use of armaments, with a special emphasis on weapons of mass destruction.

She worked as a scientist specializing in nuclear safety, design, and calculus at the Laboratory of Radiochemical Processes (LPR Project), and her managerial career has included international positions with a focus on strategic planning, business analysis, communications, education and training, and human resources with ExxonMobil and the Latin American Petrochemical Association.

Since 2000, she has worked as an independent consultant, focused on strategies formulation and implementation, new projects, and management of change as well as a publisher of academic publications.

She is a member and Head of the Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Leadership Network for Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation – LALN – organization that gathers high-level former state persons and leaders in the region to propose measures to reduce nuclear, regional and global risks.

Elli Kytömäki is an independent policy analyst and researcher working on disarmament and arms control issues, most notably related to conventional arms control and nuclear non-proliferation.

Prior to establishing her own consultancy, Ms Kytömäki was the project manager at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) for projects supporting the negotiations towards the Arms Trade Treaty.

During her career, Ms Kytömäki has also worked at Conflict Prevention Center of the OSCE Secretariat, the research institute Small Arms Survey, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN Conference on Disarmament.

Ms Kytömäki has authored several articles and papers on the Arms Trade Treaty, Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and nuclear policy and eagerly follows international developments in these areas.

Nomi has held various posts in the Department of Political Affairs and the Executive Office of the Secretary-General in UN Headquarters in New York.

She has also worked as legal adviser to the UN Mission in Haiti, political adviser to the UN Mission in Guatemala, and on elections in Mozambique and South Africa.

Between 1997 and 1998 she worked as legal adviser to various missions of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Balkans, including Albania and Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and in Montenegro.

From 1998 to 2001 she worked as a diplomatic correspondent covering the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the crisis in the Balkans for Agence France-Presse, and between 2001-2003 was a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) before becoming a member of IISS Senior Staff and later heading the Middle East Programme from 2003-2005.

Nomi has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Research and Writing Grant, a USIP Grant, a Ford Foundation grant and a British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) grant.

She has a law degree from the University of Cambridge, an LL.M. in international law and human rights from the European University Institute, Florence, and a second LL.M. from Columbia University, New York.

Dr Anita Nilsson started her nuclear career in the Swedish Government structure at the Delegation for Atomic Energy, which later became the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate where she held leadership positions with responsibilities for non-proliferation, international and national safeguards, bilateral nuclear cooperation and export control.

She was in charge of the Swedish programme for nuclear security support to the Newly Independent States and the Baltic States and Coordinator of the Swedish Support Programme to the IAEA.

She joined the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1996 as the Senior Co-ordinator of the Department of Safeguards, where she developed the information review process for international safeguards.

In 2002, she was appointed as Director of the Office of Nuclear Security, responsible for developing and implementing the IAEA´s nuclear security programme.

Since leaving the IAEA in 2011, she leads an international network of experts for worldwide nuclear security implementation, anchored in AN & Associates.

Nilsson is a Master of Science and Doctor of Medicine. She serves as advisor to the Federation of American Scientists and is a Member of the Board of Directors at ISEC Industrial Security.