The Arms Control Association is dedicated to providing authoritative information and promoting practical solutions to address the dangers posed by the world's most dangerous weapons. Every year since 2007, we nominate and select individuals and institutions that have advanced effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament solutions and/or raised awareness of the threats posed by mass casualty weapons.
Previous Winners
 | 2023: Workers and Technicians Dismantling U.S. Chemical Weapons in Colorado and Kentucky Workers and technicians at the U.S. Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky for successfully and safely completing the dangerous job of eliminating the last vestiges of the United States' once-enormous declared stockpile of lethal chemical munitions as required by the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. |
 | 2022: The Energoatom staff working at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) The Energoatom staff working at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant for their heroic efforts to maintain nuclear safety and security at the plant under conditions of immense hardship resulting from the illegal Russian military occupation of the facility, which is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, and amid continued shelling of the ZNPP facility. |
 | 2021: Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and the Government of Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and the Government of Mexico for their lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors that takes a novel approach to combat illicit weapons trafficking from the United States into Mexico that is fueling violence and criminal activity. |
 | 2020: Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins and WCAPS Ambassador Jenkins and Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security for catalyzing support and action from leaders and practitioners in the national security and foreign-policy communities to increase diversity into their ranks and boards of directors and pursue concrete steps to “root out institutional racism” in the governmental and nongovernmental sectors in the field. |
 | 2019: Dr. Areg Danagoulian and Colleagues at MIT The MIT team developed an innovative new nuclear disarmament verification process using neutron beams that authenticates the warheads’ isotopic composition without revealing it, enabling a verified dismantlement of nuclear warheads. |
 | 2018: 4,000 Anonymous Google Employees The group's open letter to company leadership led to Google ending its work on "Project Maven," a project with the Pentagon using artificial intelligence that could have been used to improve drone targeting, and announcing it would focus on "socially beneficial" AI and avoid work that causes "overall harm." |
 | 2017: The disarmament delegations of Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Africa, and Amb. Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica The core group of negotiators for leading the discussions and eventual adoption of the landmark 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to a successful conclusion in 2017. |
 | 2016: Tony de Brum and the government of the Marshall Islands The government of Marshall Islands and its former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum for pursuing a formal legal case in the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the world's nuclear-armed states for their failure to initiate nuclear disarmament negotiations in violation of Article VI of the 1968 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and customary international law. |
 | 2015: Setsuko Thurlow and the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Setsuko Thurlow and the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for their unyielding dedication to sharing first-hand accounts of the catastrophic and inhumane effects of nuclear weapons, which serves to reinforce the taboo against the further use of nuclear weapons and to maintain pressure for effective action to eliminate and outlaw nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons testing. (Watch her video-taped remarks to the 2016 Annual Meeting here.) |
 | 2014: Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Austria’s Director for Arms Control Nonproliferation and Disarmament Austria's Director for Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Ambassador Alexander Kmentt for organizing the third International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. (Read his remarks to the 2015 Annual Meeting here.) |
 | 2013: Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the CTBTO Executive-Secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization Lassina Zerbo for providing real-time data regarding North Korea's third nuclear test explosion. |
 | 2012: General James Cartwright General James Cartwright for calling on the United States to reduce its nuclear forces, scale back triad modernization plans, and reduce the alert status of deployed weapons. |
 | 2011: Kathi Lynn Austin, reporter and activist Reporter and activist Kathi Lynn Austin for her work to document and track arms smugglers and for highlighting the need for a robust global Arms Trade Treaty. |
  | 2010: Kairat Umarov, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister and Thomas D’Agostino, U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration Kazakhstan Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Umarov and U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Thomas D'Agostino for securing material containing highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium. |
 | 2009: Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) for his long-running support for U.S. financial contributions to assist with the construction of Russia's chemical weapons demilitarization complex. |
| 2008: Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Director-General for Security Policy and the High North Steffen Kongstad Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store and his minstry's Director-General for Security Policy Steffen Kongstad. Store convened the Oslo process which led to the negotiation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and Kongstad led Norway's cross departmental effort. |
| 2007: Congressmen Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and David Hobson (R-Ohio) Congressmen Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and David Hobson (R-Ohio) for helping lead the effort for Congress to reject the Bush administration's proposal to fund research on a new, replacement warhead. |
If you support the Arms Control Association's promotion of these principled individuals and efforts, please make a contribution that allows us to support their work throughout the year. Such efforts depend on the support of individuals like you.