Young Health Professionals and Students Engage in Nuclear Weapons Abolition  May 22, 2025

This May, PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Program has been busy engaging young health professionals and students around the work of nuclear disarmament. From campus socials to national webinars, we’re building momentum through creative outreach and meaningful dialogue.

One standout event this month was the Atomic Waffles Social on May 15 at the Harvard Medical School dorms organized by PSR Board Member, Dr. Joe Hodgkin and other student organizers at HMS. First-year med student Daniel McDermott helped organize the gathering, where students cooked and shared waffles while learning about the health and humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons. Inspired by IPPNW Germany’s “Atomwaffeln”, this event offered a light-hearted setting to address nuclear weapons impacts.

In addition to the waffle social, the Nuclear Weapons Abolition program hosted several key events throughout over the past month. In late April, PSR co-hosted a webinar, The Future is at Stake: AI and Nuclear Weapons, featuring younger expert voices on nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence. Speakers included Dr. Joe Hodgkin, Jack Kelly, Hamza Chaudhry, Oliver Stephenson, Sneha Revanur, and Charles Oppenheimer. 

Following this webinar, PSR’s new Emerging Leaders Cohort received training on the health impacts of nuclear weapons. During the session, Dr. Joe Hodgkin detailed the impacts of nuclear weapons on human health and the threat they pose to humanity and health, and the role of physicians in preventing nuclear war, and advocating for a nuclear free world. Also in the month of May, Dr. Ira Helfand and Joe Hodgkin attended and presented at the Educating for Peace Conference at the Ikeda Center in Boston. 

This month we worked to build a safer, nuclear-free future by empowering the next generation of health professionals.