Paul Leventhal founded the Nuclear Control Institute in 1981 and served as its President for 22 years prior to becoming Founding President in June 2002.   Before establishing NCI, Mr. Leventhal held senior staff positions in the United States Senate on nuclear power and proliferation issues. He now runs NCI as a Web-based program and maintains a word-searchable electronic archive at www.nci.org and a collection of NCI and Senate papers spanning more than 30 years at the National Security Archive.

He has prepared five books for the Institute---Nuclear Terrorism: Defining the Threat (Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1986), Preventing Nuclear Terrorism (Lexington, 1987), The Tritium Factor (with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1989) Averting a Latin American Nuclear Arms Race (Macmillan, 1992), and Nuclear Power and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons (Brassey’s, 2002).  He has lectured in a number of countries on nuclear issues, including as Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University's Global Security Programme, 1991.

Mr. Leventhal organized the Institute's International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism (1986-87), its conference in South America on averting a nuclear arms race between Argentina and Brazil (1989), a coalition of eminent U.S. scientists and diplomats seeking a halt in further production of nuclear-weapon materials (1989), and a working group of public interest organizations in Washington on nuclear proliferation issues (1981-86).

He served as Special Counsel to the Senate Government Operations Committee, chaired by Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT), l972-76, and as Staff Director of the Senate Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee, chaired by Senator Gary Hart (D-CO),  l979-1981. He was responsible for the investigations and legislation that resulted in enactment of two landmark nuclear laws---the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, fissioning the Atomic Energy Commission into separate regulatory and promotional nuclear agencies, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978, establishing stricter controls on U.S. nuclear trade to combat the spread of nuclear weapons. 

The non-proliferation act’s requirement that countries accept international inspections on all their nuclear activities (“full-scope safeguards”) as a condition of receiving U.S. nuclear assistance eventually was adopted as an international norm by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.  

He also served as co-director of the bipartisan Senate Special Investigation of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident, co-chaired by Senators Hart and Alan Simpson (R-WY), 1979-1980, and prepared the "lessons-learned" legislation enacted in 1980 to require preventive measures and emergency planning for future accidents.

Mr. Leventhal came to Washington in 1969 as Press Secretary to Senator Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) after a decade of political and investigative reporting for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, New York Post and Newsday. In 1970, he took a leave from Javits’ staff to serve as campaign press secretary to Senator Charles Goodell (R-NY).  In l972, he served as Congressional Correspondent for National Journal before returning to Capitol Hill to pursue legislative and investigative responsibilities.

Mr. Leventhal was a Research Fellow at Harvard University's Program for Science and International Affairs and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, 1976-1977, concentrating on nuclear weapons proliferation under a grant from the Ford Foundation.

He served as Assistant Administrator for Policy and Planning at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 1977-1978.

He holds a bachelor's degree in government, magna cum laude, from Franklin and Marshall College. The college presented him its Alumni Medal in 1988 for distinguished professional accomplishment and contributions to society, and an honorary doctor of laws degree in 2001 prior to his delivering that year’s commencement address. He holds a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is married and has two sons.