Newsmakers

"Belfer Center Newsmakers" highlights members of the Belfer Center community who have been featured recently in the news.

Nicholas Burns, professor of the practice of diplomacy and international politics and a member of the Belfer Center Board of Directors, has been elected as a fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Burns will be a member of the Public Affairs, Business, and Administration class.

Azeem Ibrahim, former research fellow with the International Security Program from 2008–2010, has been appointed as a strategic policy adviser to Imran Khan, head of the Pakistani political party Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) and potential next prime minister.  Ibrahim is tasked with creating policies to be implemented if Khan is elected.

Calestous Juma, professor of the practice of international development and director of the Center’s Science, Technology, and Globalization Project, will serve as a judge for the new Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.  The £1million prize recognizes outstanding advances in engineering that have changed the world and benefited humanity.  Juma will serve on a panel of 15 judges, and the first winner will be announced in the spring of 2012.

Monica Duffy Toft, associate professor of public policy and member of the Belfer Center Board of Directors, and Ivan Arreguin-Toft, assistant professor of international relations at Boston University and former research fellow with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program, have received Fulbright Scholarships for 2012-13.  They will be hosted at PIRO, the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway.  Toft’s award will support her research on demography, conflict dynamics, and international security.  Arreguin-Toft’s research focuses on the utility of barbarism—the systematic or deliberate harm of noncombatants in pursuit of a military objective—as a strategy in war.

Paul Volcker, former member of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and a member of the Belfer Center International Council, will be the recipient of the 2012 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize, recognizing him for his use of evidence and social research in advancing the public good. The Moynihan Prize is awarded annually to an individual whose career demonstrates the value of informed judgment and the use of social research in shaping public policy.