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Physicians for Social Responsibility honors CISAC's Abrams

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Herbert L. Abrams, a member-in-residence at CISAC, received the Physicians for Social Responsibility Distinguished Leadership Award on Feb. 24. Abrams, an emeritus professor of radiology at the Stanford School of Medicine and former chair of radiology at Harvard University, was honored for his leadership in PSR's advocacy of the prevention of nuclear proliferation and nuclear war, and the reversal of global warming and other environmental threats to human health.

The award recognizes Abrams' "long service to PSR and his service to the cause of world peace," PSR executive director Mike McCally said. Abrams "has been a respected academic voice for the importance of the work that PSR does," McCally added. The executive director presented the award to Abrams at Stanford, during the annual meeting of the Student Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Abrams served on PSR's national board of directors for more than 20 years and co-chaired the organization in the 1980s. He was founding vice-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a federation including PSR and similar medical and health professionals' groups worldwide, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for its public campaign to halt the nuclear arms race.

An international authority on cardiovascular radiology, Abrams has also researched human reliability in the nuclear forces, the effects of ionizing radiation and of nuclear weapons, and accidental nuclear war. He was one of two physicians selected to serve on the National Academy of Sciences' committee of 16 international experts to study the ionizing effects of radiation and issue a landmark 700-page advisory report to the U.S. government in 2004. His current research focuses on presidential disability and its potential impact on public decision-making.

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Treating Tuberculosis in North Korea: NGO Humanitarian Aid and US-DPRK Reconciliation

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Dr. Linton was born in Philadelphia in 1950 and grew up in Korea, where his father was a third generation Presbyterian missionary. He is a visiting associate of the Korea Institute, Harvard University, for 2006-07. Linton is currently Chairman of The Eugene Bell Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that provides humanitarian aid to North Korea.

Dr. Linton's talk will focus on the Eugene Bell Foundation and its programs. Named for Rev. Eugene Bell, Lintonn's great-grandfather and a missionary who arrived in Korea in 1895, the Foundation serves as a conduit for a wide spectrum of business, governmental, religious and social organizations as well as individuals who are interested in promoting programs that benefit the sick and suffering of North Korea.

Since 1995, the Foundation strives primarily to bring medical treatment facilities in North Korea together with donors as partners in a combined effort to fight deadly diseases such as tuberculosis (TB). In 2005, the North Korean ministry of Public Health officially asked the Foundation to expand its work to include support programs for local hospitals. The Foundation currently coordinates the delivery of TB medication, diagnostic equipment, and supplies to one third of the North Korean population and approximately forty North Korean treatment facilities (hospitals and care centers).

Dr. Linton's credentials include: thirty years of teaching and research on Korea, twenty years of travel to North Korea (over fifty trips since 1979), and ten years of humanitarian aid work in North Korea. Dr. Linton received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, a Masters of Divinity from Korea Theological Seminary, and a Masters of Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Korean Studies from Columbia University.

This public lecture is part of the conference "Public Diplomacy, Counterpublics, and the Asia Pacific." This conference is co-sponsored by The Asia Society Northern California; The Japan Society of Northern California; Business for Diplomatic Action; Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University; and the Taiwan Democracy Program in the Center on Democracy Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University.

Philippines Conference Room

Stephen Linton Chairman Speaker The Eugene Bell Foundation
Seminars
Korea Program

Feeding the World in the 21st Century: Exploring the Connections between Food Production, Health, Environmental Resources, and International Security

This project involves political scientists, economists, and medical researchers to address the question of whether hunger, poverty, disease and agricultural resource constraints foster civil conflict and international terrorism. Economists have elucidated the links between agricultural stagnation, poverty, and food insecurity, and political scientists have empirically analyzed the role of poverty in facilitating civil conflict.

Cooperative Threat Reduction: Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities

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The speaker will describe his experiences over ten years of developing a comprehensive program to engage the formerly top secret Soviet biological weapons complex through joint scientific research and disease surveillance. He will also discuss how lessons learned can be applied to potential new efforts to reduce global threats of bioterrorism and potential pandemics.

Andrew Weber is the adviser for cooperative threat reduction policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His responsibilities include developing and overseeing CTR biological threat reduction programs in the former Soviet Union, and nuclear and chemical weapons threat reduction projects in Central Asia. Before coming to the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 1996, Weber served as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Hong Kong. Weber holds an MSFS degree from Georgetown University and a BA from Cornell University. He speaks Russian. Weber is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service.

Reuben W. Hills Conference Room

Andrew Weber Senior Adviser for Cooperative Threat Reduction Policy Speaker Office of the Secretary of Defense
Seminars

Social Security and Poverty Alleviation in Mexico: An Economic Perspective

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Santiago Levy is a Mexican economist and former General Director of the Mexican Social Security Institute. As director of the Institute, he championed pension reform and extended social security coverage to rural workers. Prior to that, Levy was Chief economist and head of the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank (2001 - 2002). From 1994 to 2000, he was Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Finance in Mexico, where he was the force behind Progresa-Oportunidades, Mexico's widely acclaimed incentive-based health, nutrition and education program for the poor.

Levy has taught at Boston University, where he was the Chair of the Economics Department. He has published a number of books and numerous academic and newspaper articles on economic development, budgetary and tax policy, trade policy reform, social policy, rural and regional development.

Santiago Levy obtained his, B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Boston University.

CISAC Conference Room

Santiago Levy Economist, former General Director of the Social Security Institute, Mexico Speaker
Seminars

Fertilizer Use and the Epidemiology and Evolution of Cholera in Bangladesh

The use of chemical fertilizers in developing countries made possible the Green Revolution, and as a result many regions once visited by periodic famines are now food self-sufficient. However, there is a growing recognition that the injudicious use of chemical fertilizers may have adverse environmental consequences including toxic algal blooms and damage to productive ocean fisheries.

Helena de Bres

Program on Global Justice
Encina Hall, Room E112
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6165

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Program on Global Justice Predoctoral Fellow
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Helena received her PhD in Philosophy from MIT in September 2007. Her research focuses on the foundations and content of claims of justice and fairness as they arise in global politics and international law, and the relationship between these claims and their counterparts at the domestic level. She is interested in these questions both at a general level, and in connection with specific social and political concerns with a cross-border dimension (such as those that arise in relation to trade in goods, services and ideas; the environment; health policy; labor standards; development; and immigration)."

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