NEW CTBTO CHIEF NAMED ‘2013 ARMS CONTROL PERSON OF THE YEAR’

Lassina Zerbo, the new head of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, has been named the “2013 Arms Control Person of the Year” by the Arms Control Association. Zerbo was selected through online voting conducted by the ACA, besting nine other candidates picked by the arms control group. Zerbo was lauded for helping persuade China to provide data from its International Monitoring System stations to the Vienna-based International Data Centre. The IMS was established when the CTBT was signed in 1996, and it was been built over the last two decades even though the treaty has not been ratified. "Dr. Zerbo and his team at the CTBTO have built up and successfully demonstrated the considerable capabilities of the International Monitoring System and the International Data Centre, and have established the technical basis for entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear test explosions and is an essential element to a comprehensive global nonproliferation and disarmament strategy," ACA Executive Director Daryl Kimball said in a statement.