Shaheen Dewji accepted into Nuclear Scholars Initiative program

Washington, D.C. (December 7, 2010) —

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) announced that Shaheen Dewji, a past fellow of the Sam Nunn Security Program and a Ph.D. candidate in Georgia Tech’s Nuclear & Radiological Engineering Program, has been accepted into the 2011 Nuclear Scholars Initiative (NSI) which is part of their Project on Nuclear Issues. She was one of only twenty graduate students and young professionals to be accepted into next year’s program, and she joins INTA Ph.D. student and former Sam Nunn Security Fellow, Tong Zhao, who was a 2010 NSI participant.

Both Zhao and Dewji have worked closely with NRE professor Nolan Hertel and INTA professor Adam Stulberg, who have been instrumental in the development of their research and education endeavors.

The Nuclear Scholars Initiative aims to provide the scholars with a unique venue to interact and dialogue with senior experts on nuclear weapons policy and related technical issues. Over the course of this six-month program, each Scholar prepares a research paper that they will present to a panel of experts and later publish in a CSIS. Dewji’s proposal is titled, “Is Nuclear Forensics An Effective Deterrent Against Nuclear Smuggling and Terrorism?” She will examine various deterrence strategies in conjunction with the strategic application of nuclear forensics toward non-state threats, and will assess technical capabilities, uncertainties, costs, and timelines. She will make recommendations as to how the technical and policy communities can optimize this capability by paralleling technical with strategic expectations.

Her Ph.D. dissertation project is titled, “Integrated Simulation and Radiation Detection Methods for Safeguards Monitoring and Evaluation for Natural Uranium Conversion Facilities", which addresses the technical requirements and challenges of an on-line non-destructive assay radiation detection system to detect diversion activities in uranium conversion facilities, in support of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent movement to safeguard nuclear material earlier in the fuel cycle.

Dewji and Zhao are Georgia Tech’s first students to participate in NSI. “It seems that Georgia Tech has valued producing a good hybrid of technical and policy talent for recruitment in such programs", said Dewji, “Thus, we are able to effectively engage our counterparts in DC on contemporary nuclear security issues.”

Related Links

Shaheen Dewji bio
http://www.cistp.gatech.edu/programs/sam-nunn-security-program/fellows20082009.html

Tong Zhao
http://www.inta.gatech.edu/faculty-staff/listing.php?uID=51

Nuclear Scholars Initiative (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
http://csis.org/program/nuclear-scholars-initiative

Sam Nunn Security Program
http://www.cistp.gatech.edu/programs/sam-nunn-security-program/