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Dr. Richard Garwin and Jonathan Lewis: Dealing with Local Disasters

Sunday, May 16, 2010

With the recent storm that left more than 75% of Scarsdale residents without electrical power for days, and the severe flooding that occurred in April 2007, many people are asking if there is something that we can do better to help mitigate the impact of future disasters. Our two speakers, Dr. Richard Garwin and Jonathan Lewis, present a discussion on what has worked in the past and how we can apply it to Scarsdale.

Dr. Richard Garwin was born in 1928 and earned a B.S. in physics from Case Institute of Technology in 1947, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1949. He began his work with nuclear weapons technology in 1950 at Los Alamos Laboratory. He joined IBM in 1952 and became an IBM Fellow at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1967, where he worked until 1993. He has authored and co-authored numerous books, published more than 500 papers, and has 43 patents in his name. Dr. Garwin has extensive experience in Nuclear arms policy having served on the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States and JASON, an independent group of scientists which advises the US Government on matters of science and technology. He continues to be an influential voice in national security issues today.

Jonathan Lewis is the author of “Spy Capitalism: ITEK and the CIA” and the co-author of “Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs” and the past Scarsdale Forum President. In his work on both the history of the CIA and on partnerships between the private sector and the national security establishment, he has explored a variety of themes related to crisis management. He has spoken on intelligence related issues at the JFK School of Government at Harvard and at Yale University. He is a director of the Westchester chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and a Trustee of the American Jewish Historical Society.