Staff Biographies

Richard L. Garwin

Richard Garwin, holder of 45 US patents and author of more than 500 papers, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1928. He received a BS in physics from Case Institute of Technology in 1947 and a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago in 1949.

Garwin, who worked closely with Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago, spent the summer of 1950 as a consultant at Los Alamos. The following spring, he returned to Los Alamos for another three-month sabbatical. During that stay, he began working on plans for the first hydrogen bomb based on concepts introduced by Stanislaw Ulam and Edward Teller.

The following year, Garwin joined IBM, where he remained until his retirement in 1993. During his career at IBM, he helped develop superconductors, laser printers, and touch-screen monitors. Garwin also worked with the US government on issues related to nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons while at IBM. His efforts addressed anti-submarine warfare, sensor systems, military and civil aircraft, and satellite and strategic systems.

Garwin has advised multiple presidents and testified to countless Congressional committees regarding matters of national security, transportation, and energy policy and technology. From 1962 to 1965 and again from 1969 to 1972, he served as a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee.

Garwin is a member of several prestigious professional organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the American Philosophical Society. His many accolades include the 1983 Wright Prize for interdisciplinary scientific achievement, the 1988 AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award, the 1991 Erice "Science for Peace" Prize, the 1996 R.V. Jones Foreign Intelligence Award, the 1996 Enrico Fermi Award and the 2002 National Medal of Science.