Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, Cls 60, received the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Medal for distinguished public service in recognition of his lifetime of service — as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, a U.S. senator for 24 years and currently as co-chair and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Nunn also serves as a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech.

Nunn is well known for his devotion to the reduction of global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons discarded after the breakup of the Warsaw Pact countries in the late 1980s. His bipartisan cooperation with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar resulted in the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program that provided assistance to the former Soviet Union and its satellite republics for destruction of excess weapons.

The Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Public Service was established in 1987 by the American Philosophical Society to honor exceptional contributions to the general welfare of the world. The medal is the society’s highest award for distinguished public service and the sciences. The award is given to only one person and is not given every year.

Previous winners include retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Irish human rights advocate Mary Robinson and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

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