Laura Rockwood is the Director of Open Nuclear Network (ONN), a program of One Earth Future. Laura has over 30 years of experience in non-proliferation and international safeguards. She has published extensively on safeguards and non-proliferation. In July 2012, she was honored with the Distinguished Service Award by the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) for long-term noteworthy accomplishments in, and service to, the nuclear materials management profession.
Laura retired from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in November 2013 as the Section Head for Non-Proliferation and Policy in the Office of Legal Affairs after 28 years of service. During her employment with the IAEA, she was the senior legal advisor on all aspects of the negotiation, interpretation and implementation of IAEA safeguards, and was the principal author of the document that became the Model Additional Protocol. She participated in high-level negotiations on Iran, Iraq and North Korea, and in the IAEA/US/Russian Federation negotiations on the Trilateral Initiative and the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement.
Laura came to ONN from her position as Executive Director of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) between 2015 and 2019. Prior to joining the VCDNP, she served as a resident Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School Belfer Center Managing the Atom Project. She received her BA degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Juris Doctor from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.
Melissa Hanham is the Deputy Director of Open Nuclear Network (ONN), a program of One Earth Future, and also directs its Datayo Project. She is an expert on weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which include nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their delivery devices such as missiles and bombers. She has studied North Korea and China’s WMD programs for over a decade.
Melissa is an expert on open source intelligence, incorporating satellite and aerial imagery and other remote sensing data, large data sets, social media, 3D modeling and GIS mapping. She is particularly focused on the monitoring and verification of international arms control agreements using open source evidence. Melissa also uses open source information to study export-control systems and proliferation finance activities.
Melissa is an affiliate of Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. She is a regular contributor to Arms Control Wonk, the leading blog and podcast on disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation. In 2018, she was awarded the Paul Olum Grant Fund for being one of the most inventive scientific and technical minds working to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons. She previously worked at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA and the International Crisis Group in Seoul and Beijing.
