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Lauren Barbour

Lauren Barbour
Fall 1996 Fellow
Institute for Science and International Security
Lauren Barbour
Fall 1996 Fellow
Institute for Science and International Security

Major Fellowship Activities: Barbour traveled to Geneva and Vienna for ISIS-sponsored workshops on the Fissile Material Cut Off Treaty, the next nuclear arms control agreement to be negotiated in the Conference on Disarmament. For the workshops she prepared a chronology detailing events surrounding past treaty proposals.  She prepared tables and graphs which were distributed at the events.

Barbour also began writing a short introduction to safeguards for an upcoming ISIS book entitled Proliferation Critical Paths: Trends and Solutions.   She toured the Safeguards division of the IAEA while in Vienna.  She conducted research on the 93 + 2 Program, the most stringent safeguards program now being implemented by the IAEA, which includes a provision for improving the detection of clandestine nuclear activities through environmental monitoring.  She researched the materials release from uranium enrichment and processing facilities in the U.S. during the 1940’s and 1950’s in order to understand the types of releases that might be characteristic of fledgling nuclear weapons programs.

Barbour also worked on a project concerning the possible conversion of the South African Safari-1 civil nuclear reactor from High Energy Uranium to Low Energy Uranium fuels as part of the Reduced Enrichment Research and Test Reactors program.  She interviewed a series of U.S. government officials in order to document the Safari-1 conversion effort.

Current Activities: Barbour is a Senior Project Analyst at Johns Hopkins Hospital where she provides analysis and develops projections of inpatient and outpatient services including volumes, procedures and patient mix to Department of Medicine administrators and physicians. She previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development as a Team Leader/Senior Program Manager in their Office of Transition Initiatives.  Previously, she was a staff scientist at the Institute for Science and International Security, where she worked on technical assessments for nuclear nonproliferation.  She co-wrote “Ending the Production of Fissile Material for Nuclear Weapons: Background Information and Key Questions.”

My Fellowship at ISIS was a wonderful opportunity. I accepted the Fellowship because it offered me the opportunity to apply my scientific training to concrete and pressing problems. The Fellowship has realized my expectations in that respect. ISIS gave me the freedom to intellectually pursue my interests…I was immediately given responsibilities, both organizationally and intellectually; I was writing for publication and allowed to participate fully in some of ISIS’ most exciting work.