Dr. Matthew Sharp joins the Center for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP) as a Senior Nuclear Fellow

The Center for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP) within MIT’s Security Studies Program (SSP) is pleased to announce that Dr. Matthew Sharp has joined CNSP as a Senior Nuclear Fellow.

Dr. Sharp’s service in the US Department of State spans from 2009 to 2025. A career member of the US Senior Executive Service, he served in a number of positions in the State Department’s Bureaus of Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and European Affairs. This tenure includes the US Mission to the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) as the Deputy Counselor for IAEA Affairs in Vienna from 2016-2020. From 2021-2022, Sharp was the Director for Iran Nuclear Issues on President Biden’s National Security Council staff. 

Sharp was a 2008-2009 postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Managing the Atom Program and holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago.

We are delighted and lucky to have Dr. Matthew Sharp join CNSP as a senior nuclear fellow. He brings deep technical expertise as a physicist as well as almost fifteen years of policy experience working on arms control and counterproliferation issues at the Department of State, where he closed his career as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability. Arms control is a pillar of nuclear security and we are fortunate to have someone of Dr. Sharp’s caliber and experience join the center.

-CNSP Director, Dr. Vipin Narang

The Center for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP) within the MIT Security Studies Program (SSP) was established in July 2024 through a transformational gift from the Stanton Foundation. CNSP aims to be a global hub for advancing policy-relevant research on nuclear security and promoting the development of the next generation of thought leaders in nuclear security. CNSP will focus on a broad range of topics, including nuclear deterrence, escalation, conventional-nuclear integration, extended deterrence, emerging technologies and nuclear security, proliferation and non-proliferation, and arms control. SSP is a graduate-level research and educational program focused on national and international security issues and is based at the MIT Center for International Studies.