Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Announce New Additions to its Board of Sponsors and Governing Board: Gareth Evans and David Wolf

CHICAGO – The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has announced new additions to its Board of Sponsors and Governing Board: the Honorable Gareth Evans, Chancellor of Australian National University, will join the Board of Sponsors; David Wolf, founder and director of Fremont Group and co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Biovec and Biovec Transfusion, will join the Governing Board.

Members of the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors are recruited by their peers from among the world’s most accomplished scientific leaders to amplify the gravity and importance of what the Bulletin publishes, and to provide expert counsel on issues of global security, science, and survival, particularly for the organization’s annual Doomsday Clock statement. The Board of Sponsors currently includes 16 Nobel Laureates.

“These additions add incredible depth to our organization,” Rachel Bronson, executive director and publisher of the Bulletin, said on Wednesday. “Gareth Evans spent 21 years in the Australian government, including 8 years as Foreign Minister. He spent 9 years as President and CEO of the International Crisis Group. His knowledge of global institutions and his deep commitment to addressing complex issues add new dimensions to the Board of Sponsors."

Evans has also co-chaired two major International Commissions--on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2000-01), and Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (2008-10)--and has been a member of a number of others. He currently Co-Chairs the International Advisory Board of the New-York based Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and is Convenor of the Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. “The Bulletin has long been justly renowned for the quality of its analysis, intensity of its moral commitment, and impact of its advocacy for a world without nuclear weapons. As recent hopes for change fade, and the world once again sleepwalks toward nuclear midnight, its voice has never been more needed. I am honored to serve on the Board and look forward to contributing to its crucially important work,” Evans stated on Wednesday.

Lee Francis, chair of the Bulletin’s Governing Board, praised the new additions and added, “The Governing Board ensures that the organization has the management, policies, and resources to fulfill its mission. David Wolf brings not only wide-ranging international connections in the energy and defense sectors and beyond, but also crucial experience as a business leader on a global scale. His contributions to the Board will ensure that the Bulletin’s mission of alerting the public to the dangers that threaten our very survival will be fulfilled for years to come.”

Wolf is also a past Executive Board Member of the US-India Business Council, a Board member of the Global Offsets and Countertrade Association, and a member of the President’s Circle of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In discussing his appointment to the Governing Board, Wolf observed that the Bulletin’s reach is international: “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is not just an American institution but a global one; it’s a crucial conduit of information for people and policy makers of all nations. I am thrilled and honored to be part of its history and mission.”

About the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:
Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists subsequently created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero), to convey threats to humanity and the planet. The decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made by the Bulletin's Science and Security Board in consultation with the Governing Board and the Board of Sponsors. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences.