50th Annual Meeting Plenary Speakers

INMM is pleased to welcome two highly respected plenary speakers for the 50th Annual Meeting.

Opening Plenary
Monday, July 13

Olli Heinonen
IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Safeguards

Olli Heinonen was appointed as the Deputy Director General, Head of the Department of Safeguards, at the International Atomic Energy Agency, in July 2005. The Department of Safeguards is responsible for verifying that nuclear material placed under safeguards is not diverted to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices and that there is no undeclared nuclear material or activities in non-nuclear weapons States party to the NPT.

Before joining the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1983, Heinonen was a Senior Research Officer at the Technical Research Centre of Finland Reactor Laboratory Otakaari, Espoo, Finland.
From 1999–2002, Mr. Heinonen was Director of Operations A and from 2002-2005, he was the Director of Operations B in the Department of Safeguards.

Heinonen studied Radiochemistry and holds a Ph.D. in radiochemistry from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Closing Plenary Speaker
Thursday, July 16

Hans Blix
Chair, Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission

Hans Blix served as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, from 1981 to 1997, and as Executive Chair of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) from March 2000 to June 2003. Blix has written several books on subjects associated with international and constitutional law and international affairs.

On his return to Sweden, the Swedish government has asked him to form and chair an independent international commission on weapons of mass destruction (WMDC). In May 2006 the Commission published the report “Weapons of Terror. Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons”.

Blix was born in 1928 in Uppsala, Sweden.  He studied at the University of Uppsala; Columbia University, where he was also a research graduate; and at Cambridge University, where he received his Ph.D.  In 1959, he became Doctor of Laws at the Stockholm University, and, in 1960, was appointed Associate Professor in International Law. His book, “Disarming Iraq” was published in March 2004 and “Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters” in April 2008.

Updated: April 3, 2009