Dylan Spaulding is a senior scientist in the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
His work focuses on technical issues related to nuclear weapons and policies that can reduce the threat they pose.
Before joining the Union of Concerned Scientists, Dr. Spaulding's research focused on material properties at extreme conditions of temperature and pressure. He conducted experiments using a variety of static and dynamic compression techniques in the lab to understand how material properties evolve within planetary interiors and stars, as well as conditions relevant to nuclear detonation.
He earned his undergraduate degree in physics from Brown University and Ph.D in Earth and Planetary Sciences from UC Berkeley. Dr. Spaulding has long been involved with the US national labs as an intern, NNSA Stockpile Stewardship Graduate Fellow, and visiting scientist and experimenter. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique in France and Origins Initiative fellow at Harvard University. Most recently, he commissioned and directed the Shock Compression Laboratory at UC Davis, where he also taught undergraduate geology.