Peter D. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Science Adviser

Peter D. Zimmerman, Ph.D., is a science adviser at the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism; he is also a fellow working at the Homeland Security Institute.

A nuclear physicist, he is professor emeritus of science and security at King’s College London and retired as director of the KCL Centre for Science & Security in fall of 2007. At King’s College, his interests included nuclear terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and technical studies of debris in space caused by the use of space weaponry.

Dr. Zimmerman served as the chief scientist of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2001 to 2004. Earlier, he was science advisor for arms control in the US State Department and the last chief scientist of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

He is also a fellow at the American Physical Society, a former member of its governing Council, and the recipient of its 2004 Burton/Forum Award for physics in the public interest. He earned B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and a Filosofie Licentiat degree from Lund University in Sweden.