Alumni Speaker Series

Sarah Laderman

Associate Safeguards Information Analyst at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria

“From Nuclear Weapons Policy to Safeguards”

Abstract: I started out working on nuclear weapons policy for the Department of Defense, but through the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium at UC Berkeley, I shifted my focus to nuclear treaty compliance and conflict de-escalation. With the opportunities provided by the NSSC and Berkeley, I was able to explore my interests at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and leverage all my experience and research to get a job at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. I now work to verify that what IAEA inspectors are seeing at nuclear facilities around the world and what countries are telling the IAEA about their nuclear programmes, align with what I can find in scientific publications, news reports, and other open sources. This is critical work that allows the IAEA to warn the world about the potential spread of nuclear weapons or sensitive technologies. 

Bio: Sarah Laderman is currently an Associate Safeguards Information Analyst at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. Sarah received her MS in Nuclear Engineering and a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley, where she was a fellow with the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium researching topics of interest at the nexus of nuclear weapons technology and policy, primarily in the fields of network science and nonproliferation. Additionally, she was a graduate intern at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where she researched Chinese military and nuclear strategy. She received her BS in Nuclear Science and Engineering and Political Science from MIT and previously worked as a contractor for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters on issues relating to nuclear stockpile management, coordination of weapon modernization programs, and nuclear survivability of DoD systems.