Tamara Lilinoe Patton, a native Hawaiian, is a Research Collaborator with SGS, having received her Ph.D. in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs in 2021. She has been a postdoctoral researcher at MIT’s Security Studies Program and Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs. Prior to coming to Princeton, she was a researcher at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation and at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute where she worked on the impact of emerging technologies, nuclear and conventional arms control and disarmament, and the socioeconomic impact of landmines. Tamara is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Her research agenda is focused on human security at the intersection of science, technology, and society. This includes elevating Indigenous perspectives to reimagine peace and security beyond deterrence and militarism, illuminating the humanitarian impact of nuclear and conventional weapons, and supporting the design and implementation of international humanitarian law and support structures. 

Publications

T. Patton, Lessons for Confronting Deterrence and Militarism from Hawaii, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 11 October 2023.

T. Patton, Information and Blind spots: Satellite-imaging Technology and Contending Arguments for Nuclear Disarmament, Arms control, and Modernization in U.S. Policymaking, Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, November 2021.

T. Patton, S. Philippe, Z. Mian, Fit for Purpose: An Evolutionary Strategy for the Implementation and Verification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2019.

T. Patton and A. Glaser, Deferred Verification: The Role of New Verification Technologies and Approaches, Nonproliferation Review, 26 (3-4), 2019.

M. Kütt, T. Patton, A. Glaser, and M. Göttsche, Nuclear Inspections in the Matrix: Virtual Reality for the Development of Inspection Approaches in New Facility Types, Symposium on International Safeguards: Building Future Safeguards Capabilities, International Atomic Energy Agency, November 5-8, 2018, Vienna, Austria.

T. Patton, An International Monitoring System for Verification to Support Both the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the Nonproliferation Treaty, Global Change, Peace & Security, 2018, 30 (2), pp. 187-207.

T. Patton and A. Glaser, Mapping Nuclear Verification, 58th INMM Annual Meeting, Indian Wells, CA, July 2017.

L. Petruzzi, B. Cogswell, A. Glaser, M. Goettsche, T. Patton, and D. Wallace, Nuclear Inspections in the Matrix: Working with Radiation Detectors in Virtual Reality, 58th INMM Annual Meeting, Indian Wells, CA, July 2017.

T. Patton, B. Cogswell, M. Kütt, and A. Glaser: Full-Motion Virtual Reality for Nuclear Arms Control, 57th Annual INMM Meeting, July 24-28, 2016, Atlanta, Georgia.

T. Patton, Emerging Satellites for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Verification, Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, January 2016.

T. Patton, Virtual Reality for Verification with the Unity Game Engine, International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Safeguards Symposium, October 2014.

L. Grip and T. Patton, The Humanitarian and Developmental Impact of Anti-Vehicle Mines, Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, September 2014.

T. Patton, Policy Paper: Governing Uranium in China, Danish Institute for International Studies and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, March 2014.

L. Grip and T. Patton, Humanitarian arms control initiatives, SIPRI Yearbook 2013, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Oxford University Press, 2013.

T. Patton, P. Podvig, and P. Schell, A New START Model for Transparency in Nuclear Disarmament, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, April 2013.

T. Patton, P. Podvig, and P. Schell, Individual Country Reports – A New START Model for Transparency in Nuclear Disarmament, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, April 2013.

T. Patton, Combining Satellite Imagery and 3D Drawing Tools for Nonproliferation Analysis: A Case Study of Pakistan’s Khushab Plutonium Production Reactors, Science & Global Security, 20 (2-3), 2012, pp. 117-140.

Teaching

 

Assistant in Instruction (AI), Science and Global Security: From Nuclear Weapons to Cyberwarfare and Artificial Intelligence (SPI/MAE 353, Spring 2018 and Spring 2019). This course provides students with a basic technical understanding of some of the critical technologies that are relevant to national and global security and will equip students with the skills to better assess the challenge of developing effective policies to manage such technologies. Case studies include nuclear weapons and their proliferation, nuclear and radiological terrorism, space weapons, biosecurity and cyberwarfare.

Talks

Contending Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Security: Deterrence and Militarism versus Indigenous Pursuits of Justice in Oceania, International Conference Center Hiroshima, April 2023.

Disarmament Verification and the TPNW, Harvard University, Belfer Center, Future Directions in the Study of Nuclear Disarmament, June 2022.

Envisioning and Ending Nuclear Violence, Nobel Peace Center, Nuclear Disarmament Summit, Oslo, Norway, June 2022.

Nuclear Arms Control, Disarmament, and Verification, Technische Universität Berlin, November 2020.

Panel Discussion: Narrative and the Power of Virtual Reality, Games for Change Festival, Parsons School of Design, June 2019.

Examining the Risks of Nuclear Weapons: A Pacific Perspective, Pacific Conference & Global Youth Forum Auckland, New Zealand, December 2018.

Enabling Arms Control and Disarmament Verification - The Role of Commercial Satellite Technology, Stockholm Security Conference on Emerging Technologies: Unseen connections, missing players, absent solutions, Stockholm, Sweden, 20 September 2018.

Virtual Reality for Nuclear Disarmament Verification, Games for Change Festival, Parsons School of Design, June 2018.

Virtual Reality for Nuclear Disarmament Verification, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, United Nations Office at Geneva, May 2018.

Mapping and Monitoring Nuclear Weapon Program Indicators, 16th ROK UN Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Issues, Jeju, South Korea, November 2017.

Panel Discussion: Arms Control and the Challenges of New Technologies, American Society of International Law Annual Meeting, Washington DC, April 2017.

Full-Motion Virtual Reality for Nuclear Arms Control (with A. Glaser), 57th Annual INMM Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, July 2016.

Full Motion Virtual Reality for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D) University & Industry Technical Interchange (UITI) Program & Technical Review Meeting, June 2016.

Emerging Commercial Small Satellites for Verification Support, Consortium on Verification Technology Workshop on Nuclear Verification at Low Numbers, December 2015.

New Technologies and Opportunities for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Verification, Seminar at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Vienna, Austria, June 2015.

Virtual Reality for Verification with the Unity Game Engine, International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Safeguards Symposium, October 2014.

New Technologies for Verification in the Context of the CTBT, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization’s (CTBTO) Public Policy Course, 4 September 2014.

International Technical Means of Verification, Presentation at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Scientific Advisory Board, Temporary Working Group on Verification, The Hague, Netherlands, 9 April 2014.

The Humanitarian and Developmental Impact of Anti-Vehicle Mines, United Nations Office at Geneva, Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 2013 Meeting of States Parties, 15 November 2014.