Biography
Steve Fetter is professor of public policy at the University of Maryland and previously served as Associate Provost, Dean of the Graduate School, and Dean of the School of Public Policy.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a recipient of the APS Szilard and Burton awards. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control, a member of the board of the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and previously was president of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs and a member of the Director of National Intelligence’s Intelligence Science Board and the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee.
Fetter worked for five years in the White House during the Obama Administration, leading the environment and national security divisions in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He previously served as special assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and also worked in the State Department. He has been a visiting fellow at Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and has been a consultant to several US government agencies.
He received a PhD in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and a SB in physics from MIT.
Research
- Nuclear strategy and arms control
- Nuclear proliferation and terrorism
- Ballistic missile defense
- Military space issues and antisatellite weapons
- Nuclear energy and low-carbon energy supply
- Emerging and disruptive technologies
Selected publications
- Jaganath Sankaran and Steve Fetter, ‘Defending America: A Sensible Approach to National Missile Defense Against North Korea,’ International Security, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Winter 2021/22)
- Charles L. Glaser and Steve Fetter, ‘Should the United States Reject MAD? Damage Limitation and U.S. Nuclear Strategy toward China,’ International Security, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Summer 2016)
- Matthew Bunn, Steve Fetter, John P. Holdren and Bob van der Zwaan, ‘The Economics of Reprocessing vs. Direct Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel,’ Nuclear Technology, Vol. 150, No. 3 (June 2005)
- Charles L. Glaser and Steve Fetter, ‘National Missile Defense and the Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy,’ International Security, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Summer 2001)
- Steve Fetter, ‘Nuclear Archaeology: Verifying Declarations of Fissile-material Production,’ Science and Global Security, Vol. 3, Nos. 3–4 (1993)