It was a pleasure to see Professor Frank von Hippel’s championing of nuclear safety and security appreciated (“The Happy Warrior,” April issue). As an undergraduate majoring in what we used to affectionately call Woody Woo, I was focused on market incentives in environmental policy. But after taking one class with von Hippel, and then another, I changed my professional trajectory to the one I’m still on today. As a professor working on nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons threats, bridging the academic, government, and think-tank worlds, I’m regularly reminded that not only does von Hippel “know people who know people,” as you quoted him saying, but so many of them also know — and deeply appreciate — him.
It was a pleasure to see Professor Frank von Hippel’s championing of nuclear safety and security appreciated (“The Happy Warrior,” April issue). As an undergraduate majoring in what we used to affectionately call Woody Woo, I was focused on market incentives in environmental policy. But after taking one class with von Hippel, and then another, I changed my professional trajectory to the one I’m still on today. As a professor working on nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons threats, bridging the academic, government, and think-tank worlds, I’m regularly reminded that not only does von Hippel “know people who know people,” as you quoted him saying, but so many of them also know — and deeply appreciate — him.