New York University School of Law alumnus Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was today awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. ElBaradei shares the prize with the organization he heads.
New York University School of Law alumnus Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was today awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. ElBaradei shares the prize with the organization he heads.
ElBaradei received two law degrees from NYU’s School of Law: an LL.M. degree in 1971 and a J.S.D. degree in 1974. In 2004, NYU bestowed upon ElBaradei an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
In awarding the prize to both ElBaradei and IAEA, the Nobel committee cited, “their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way.”
The committee went on to say, “At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its Director General. In the nuclear non-proliferation regime, it is the IAEA which controls that nuclear energy is not misused for military purposes, and the Director General has stood out as an unafraid advocate of new measures to strengthen that regime. At a time when disarmament efforts appear deadlocked, when there is a danger that nuclear arms will spread both to states and to terrorist groups, and when nuclear power again appears to be playing an increasingly significant role, IAEA’s work is of incalculable importance.”
In his will, Alfred Nobel wrote that the Peace Prize should, among other criteria, be awarded to whoever had done most for the “abolition or reduction of standing armies”. In its application of this criterion in recent decades, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has concentrated on the struggle to diminish the significance of nuclear arms in international politics, with a view to their abolition. That the world has achieved little in this respect makes active opposition to nuclear arms all the more important today.
NYU has a total of 11 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and faculty. NYU Stern School of Business Professor Robert Engle, who holds the Michael Armellino Professorship in the Management of Financial Services, captured the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility (ARCH). Engle, 60, shared the prize with Clive W. J. Granger of the University of California at San Diego.
New York University, which was established in 1831, is one of the largest and most prestigious private research universities in the U.S. It has more international students than any other U.S. college or university. Through its 13 schools and colleges, NYU conducts research and provides education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, dentistry, education, nursing, business, social work, the cinematic and performing arts, public administration and policy, and continuing studies, among other areas.