Scientist, Activist, and Writer

Advancing and Advocating for Science and Democracy


Available Now

Avoiding Apocalypse

"Avoiding Apocalypse: How Science and Scientists Ended the Cold War" tells the little-known story of the world-wide scientists’ boycott of the Soviet Union that set in motion an astonishing sequence of events. Starting simultaneously with the rise to power of an obscure Soviet bureaucrat named Mikhail Gorbachev, the scientists’ boycott not only led to the end of the Cold War, but the end of the Soviet Union itself.


About Jeff Colvin

Jeff has spent the past 45 years as a research physicist helping to develop the science that has made technically possible a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), one linchpin of the Cold War stand-down discussed in his new book, Avoiding Apocalypse. He is the author or co-author of nearly 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications; has written (with Jon Larsen) what has now become the standard graduate-level text book in the new field of physics that grew out of Cold War era nuclear weapons development (click HERE for information on this book); played a leadership role in organizing the scientists' boycott and aiding dissident and refusenik Soviet scientists; held an appointed position in the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. during the George H. W. Bush administration; and has written and published several Op-Ed columns on these and related topics in different newspapers over the years.

He lives part-time in Livermore, California and part-time in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with his wife, Mary Frances.