Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, received the 2009 Delta Prize for Global Understanding at a ceremony March 18 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.
ElBaradei was honored for his dedication, leadership and diplomacy in promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear technology. Delta Airlines and UGA present the prize annually to an individual whose initiatives have helped promote world peace. ElBaradei is the 10th recipient.
At the ceremony, ElBaradei, who also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, advocated the need for a new global security system.
“We have to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons,” he said. “It’s not idealist. It’s simply a practical way to save ourselves. If we continue the way we are, more and more countries will have nuclear weapons and the odds that nuclear weapons will be used—accidentally or intentionally—are much, much higher.”
ElBaradei also discussed his work bringing peaceful nuclear technologies, including radiation therapies for cancer patients or techniques that check water pollution, to developing countries.
“Global understanding is a necessity in this interconnected world. We need to understand that our diversity is our strength. We need to understand that our core values are the same whether we’re Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Jew,” he said. “Reaching human understanding requires that all of us work for it, and each of us has to take his or her share.”
UGA President Michael F. Adams praised ElBaradei’s contribution to keeping peace in the world.
“Tonight Dr. ElBaradei joins a first-rate list of Delta Prize winners, all of whom have dedicated themselves to the concept that one person can make the world a better place for the interchange of ideas and for the peaceful transmission of knowledge,” he said.