Overview

The first meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group took place on 1 March 2023. At the meeting, the Group elected Ms. Patricia Lewis and Mr. Zia Mian as co-chairs. Following the election, the Group heard a briefing from the Secretariat on its mandate, before engaging in a discussion on decisions related to the effective functioning of the Group as well as its programme of work for 2023.

Background

Members

The President of the second Meeting of States Parties, His Excellency Juan Ramón de la Fuente (Mexico) appointed the following Members for a term of office beginning on 8 February 2023 and expiring on the final day of the first Review Conference:

  • Mr. Kouamé Rémi Adjoumani
  • Ms. Bashillah Bt. Baharuddin
  • Mr. Erlan Batyrbekov
  • Mr. André Johann Buys
  • Mr. Jans Fromow-Guerra
  • Mr. Bwarenaba Kautu
  • Mr. Moritz Kütt
  • Ms. Patricia Lewis
  • Mr. Zia Mian
  • Ms. Ivana Nikolic Hughes
  • Mr. Sébastien Philippe
  • Ms. Petra Seibert
  • Mr. Noël Francis Stott
  • Mr. Gerardo Suárez Reynoso
  • Mr. A K M Raushan Kabir Zoardar

Mandate

By its decision 2, the first Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons established a Scientific Advisory Group to be composed of a maximum of 15 members, and was to be appointed by the President following consultations with States Parties. The Group was established “on the basis of the mandate contained in document TPNW/MSP/2022/WP.6”, a working paper submitted by the President of the first Meeting of States Parties that contains further details on the purpose, background and terms of reference of the Group.

Officers

At its first meeting on 1 March 2023, the Scientific Advisory Group elected Ms. Patricia Lewis and Mr. Zia Mian as co-chairs.

Zia Mian is an award-winning physicist and co-director of Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security, part of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, where he has worked since 1997. He is co-author of Unmaking the Bomb, and editor and co-editor of several books. Mian is co-editor of the international technical journal Science & Global Security, co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), and a co-founder of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction.

Mian received the 2014 Linus Pauling Legacy Award, the American Physical Society’s 2019 Leo Szilard Award, and in 2021 was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He was selected by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as one of “60 faces of CND” for its 60th anniversary. Mian serves on the Boards of the Arms Control Association, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.

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