Institute launches the Center for Nuclear Security Policy following a $45 million donation
MIT’s Security Studies Program will begin a Center for Nuclear Security Policy following a $45 million gift from The Stanton Foundation. The Security Studies Program, founded in 1976 as the Defense and Arms Control Study Program, is a joint program between the MIT Center for International Studies and MIT Political Science.
According to a press release from MIT News, the donation is intended to create a “new center on the topic [of nuclear security] while extending and enhancing research, teaching, and policy outreach in an area where the Institute is a longstanding leader with wide-ranging faculty expertise.”
The center’s first director will be Vipin Narang, who was spent the past two-and-a-half-years as acting assistant secretary of defense for space policy at the U.S. Department of Defense. He is also the Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science. Narang stated that he is “thrilled to return to MIT and help launch this historic center.”
M. Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies Program, stated that “we are on the cusp of a new and more dangerous nuclear age” and stated that “this new center will help us address these new challenges.” MIT President Sally Kornbluth added that the investment will allow the Institute to “lead the way in advancing evidence-based nuclear policy in the best interest of our nation and the world.”