Armand Lattes, Professor Emeritus of the University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the world faced a plethora of problems. In retrospect, the world did not handle the demise very well. Russia and the other former Soviet states were broke and in collapse and armed with uncountable Weapons of Mass Destruction.
In the 1940s and 50s, before the Soviets had nuclear weapons, their counter weapon to American and European nukes was nerve gas and other chemical weapons. The Soviets manufactured thousands and thousands of tons of chemical weapons and stored them for the Doomsday attack.
In 1992 these un-dropped bombs and un-fired shells were rusting and leaking in storage across the former empire that had no money. If these chemicals leaked into waterways and into the air, illness and death would spread through and out of the former Soviet Union.
The answer to the problem was a massive, long-term decontamination program. One of the chemists who volunteered for this dangerous work was Professor Armand Lattes of the University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. Every September from 1992 until I met him in 2006, Lattes flew to secret sites in the former Soviet Union and worked with international volunteers to neutralize this terrible stockpile of weapons. Lattes continued his unheralded work for several years after we met until his retirement.
I kept in touch with Armand in the years since and still hope to visit him and his wife Isabelle at their home in Toulouse. I almost made it to Toulouse on my trip around Europe last summer, but never got to that part of France.
When we hear of the latest terrorist attack on the news, we know that dozens more attacks were foiled by law enforcement working secretly to disrupt the terrorists. Armand and the men and women he worked with saved countless lives and the world itself from the disaster of chemical weapons leaking into the air and water or being stolen and used by terrorists.
Armand did his part to keep the weapons of the Cold War from killing after the demise of the Soviet Union.
