You are a nuclear physicist and an expert in non-proliferation. What made you focus on public policy during the coronavirus pandemic?
I have always been interested in public health and worked on an exciting project during the Obama presidency which was looking at emergency responses to a radiological incident. Working in non-proliferation, you have to convince people that this is a really important issue and, even if incidents are very rare, that doesn’t make planning for a nuclear incident unnecessary. When the COVID-19 crisis happened in January, I knew that the people in power were not taking it as seriously as they should.
What do you mean, not taking it seriously?
