Then: Economist for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services

Later: Deputy National Security Advisor under President John F. Kennedy, Director, Program in Science, Technology and Society, at MIT

After serving in the US Air Force during World War II, Carl Kaysen attended the first session of the Salzburg Seminar in 1947 and found himself sitting across tables from young Germans who had been his enemies two years earlier. For Kaysen, a trained economist, the Seminar was his first exposure to diplomacy. Throughout his career, Kaysen was committed to peace-building and disarmament. He is perhaps best known as President Kennedy’s behind-the-scenes negotiator for the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union. He returned twice as a Salzburg Seminar faculty member and served for eight years on the organization’s board of directors