Herbert J. Ellison Memorial Lecture

Upcoming 2026 – Togzhan Kassenova

Register for the 2026 Herbert J Ellison Lecture | Dr. Togzhan Kassenova on Nuclear Futures in Central Asia: Opportunities and Risks

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, 5:30 – 7 p.m, HUB 250

Woman in green shirt

Central Asia is considering a major expansion of nuclear energy. The appeal is clear: nuclear power could support economic growth, reduce reliance on imported fuel, and help meet climate goals.

But the region also carries a difficult history with nuclear activity, from Soviet-era testing and mining, and faces ongoing concerns about safety, security, waste management, corruption, and geopolitical competition among major powers.

This talk — free and open to all — examines these competing pressures and what they mean for the region’s energy future.

Dr. Togzhan Kassenova is a senior fellow at the Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft (PISCES) at the Center for Policy Research, University at Albany, and a visiting professor at the Institute of International Relations (IRI), University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is an expert on nuclear politics, WMD nonproliferation, strategic trade controls, and financial crime prevention. She currently works on issues related to proliferation financing controls, exploring ways to minimize proliferators’ access to the global financial system. Kassenova holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Leeds. From 2011 to 2015, Kassenova served on the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. She is a member of the UN Independent Scientific Panel on the Effects of Nuclear War.

Kassenova is the author of the award-winning Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb (Stanford University Press, 2022).

The annual Herbert J. Ellison Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the Center for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and the Herbert J. Ellison Endowment.