James M. Acton is a lecturer and research associate at the Centre for Science and Security, Department of War Studies, King's College London. He is a former science and technology researcher at the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC), where he specialized in nuclear issues. In May 2007, his report with Joanna Little, “The Use of Voluntary Safeguards to Build Trust in States’ Nuclear Programmes: The Case of Iran,” was published by VERTIC.
Quincy W. Castro is a recent graduate of the International Affairs Graduate Program at Marquette University and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He specializes in U.S. defense policy and nonproliferation.
Christopher A. Ford serves as U.S. special representative for nuclear nonproliferation. From April 2003 until December 2006, he served as principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation at the U.S. State Department.
Kenneth Luongo is executive director and founder of the Partnership for Global Security. He also served as a senior visiting fellow and visiting research collaborator with Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security; as the senior advisor to the secretary of energy for nonproliferation policy and the director of the Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of Energy; as a professional staff member in the U.S. Congress with the House Armed Services Committee; and as military and foreign policy advisor to two senior senators.
Representative Ellen O. Tauscher (Democrat of California) is currently serving her sixth term in Congress. One of Congress's leading experts on nuclear nonproliferation, much of her work focuses on working to stop the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Tauscher chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee; she is the only member of Congress to represent two nuclear weapons laboratories—Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories/California. Tauscher was recently appointed vice chair for the Future Security and Defense Capabilities Subcommittee of the Defense and Security Committee of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly.
Leonard Weiss is an independent consultant and former staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. His article in this issue was written during his 2006–2007 tenure as a senior science fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.
Isabelle Williams was a project manager at the Partnership for Global Security and has previously worked with the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute and with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She holds a BA and MA in international studies from Leeds University, United Kingdom.
Karen Winzoski is assistant professor of politics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. In 2006–2007, she was a visiting lecturer in the Department of Government at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Winzoski studied at the University of Calgary and earned her doctorate in political studies at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of several conference papers on the relationship between scientists, industry, and U.S. chemical and biological weapons policy.
Amy F. Woolf is a specialist in national defense in the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress. She joined CRS in April 1988 and provides Congress with information, analysis, and support on issues related to nuclear forces and arms control. Woolf holds a master's in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.