Under the leadership of Paolo Cotta-Ramusino (2002-2024) Pugwash expanded its activities and network across the Middle East and South Asia, leading dialogues on the Iran nuclear issue, India-Pakistan-Kashmir, and on reconciliation in Afghanistan. He also maintained Pugwash’s traditional focus of nuclear arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation.
He is a former Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Milan and Senior Researcher at the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics. In 1983, he co-founded the Italian Union of Scientists for Disarmament (USPID) and served on the USPID Scientific Council. He was also formerly Director of the Program on Science, Technology and International Security at the Landau Network Centro Volta (Como). Previously he was also an adjunct Professor at the Centre of International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and an Associate with the Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He was a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the World Academy of Art and Sciences.
Expertise: Effects of a Nuclear War, Nuclear Arms Control, South Asia, Middle East non-proliferation and security