Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress

Scientist explains what South Korea did right.

The World Today Updated 28 September 2020 3 minute READ

Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress

Scientist-in-residence and Adjunct Professor, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

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?

Access the archive

The current issue is open access with previous editions reserved for our members and magazine subscribers.