Since Robert Oppenheimer looked upon the weapon of mass destruction he invented and uttered the words, “I am become death,” the human race has lived in the shadow of nuclear proliferation.

Contrary to popular belief, nuclear proliferation is as much of a danger today as it always was.

Kurt Gottfried, professor emeritus of physics at Cornell University and chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, will speak Thursday on nuclear weapons proliferation in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union at 8 p.m.

Joel Snow, executive associate director of the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics, said Gottfried is an expert on nuclear weapons and missile defense as well as fundamental properties of matter.

“For the last 30 years, he’s been working on arms-control issues,” Snow said. “He’s an expert on missile defense, nuclear stockpiles and nuclear weapons proliferation [spreading to other countries].”

He said the danger that was present in the past decades is still here.

“In the post-Cold War world, people think this danger has gone away, but it hasn’t,” he said. “There are still thousands of weapons in the United States and Russia as well as other countries that are trying to get into the game. That was the problem with Iraq; they were secretly developing nuclear and biological weapons.”

Snow said there is a fine line between being an activist and providing technical information.

“It’s important to him,” he said. “It’s a lifelong commitment to inform the public about these matters.”

James Vary, professor of physics and astronomy, is the director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics. He said the Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit organization privately funded in large part by the member scientists who work together on environmental and public policy issues.

“Gottfried is the leader of their efforts in arms control and nuclear nonproliferation,” Vary said. “He conducts and supervises scientific studies that help shape public policy on these issues. He’s been an adviser on various panels studying these issues for more than 30 years under various administrations.”

Vary said the subject of nuclear proliferation is one for Americans to be concerned with because the end of the Cold War did not signal the end of nuclear weapons.

“Nuclear proliferation is still a danger since the Cold War is over,” Vary said. “What happens now in the United States regarding nuclear weapons? Are we going to reduce our arsenal and what can we expect other countries to do? How can we increase our own security without increasing the number of nuclear weapons?”