Please save the date of
Thursday, October 16, 2025, starting at 6:00 PM
for the Washington Foreign Law Society’s 2025 Gala Dinner
Honoring
Rafael Mariano Grossi
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
The Washington Foreign Law Society is proud to present Director General Grossi with the Society’s Harry Leroy Jones Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to international peace, nuclear security and the global rule of law.
Venue: TBD
Details and registration portal will be available soon.
Rafael Mariano Grossi –
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Mr. Rafael Mariano Grossi has served as the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 3 December 2019. A seasoned diplomat with nearly four decades of experience in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, Mr. Grossi has held a series of high-level roles in both national and international institutions.
Before his election as Director General, he was the President-Designate of the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). From 2014 to 2016, he served as President of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), becoming the first to hold the post for two consecutive terms. In 2015, he also presided over the Diplomatic Conference of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, which led to the unanimous adoption of the Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety—a milestone following the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident.
From 2013 to 2019, Mr. Grossi served as Argentina’s Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the IAEA and other Vienna-based international organizations. He had earlier held key positions within the IAEA, including Assistant Director General for Policy and Chief of Cabinet from 2010 to 2013.
Mr. Grossi has also contributed significantly to the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), where he served as Chief of Cabinet from 2002 to 2007. Prior to that, he held senior diplomatic roles in Argentina’s Foreign Ministry, including Political Affairs Director General (2007–2009), Head of Mission in Belgium and Luxembourg (1998–2002), and Representative to NATO (1998–2001). He joined the Argentine Foreign Service in 1985.
He holds a Master’s and a PhD in International Relations, International History, and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, University of Geneva. He began his studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and trained at the Argentine Diplomatic Academy.
As a champion of equal opportunities for women and men in the nuclear sector, Mr. Grossi launched the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme in 2020 and the Lise Meitner Programme in 2023. These initiatives aim to support women in entering and advancing within the nuclear field, helping to build the future nuclear workforce. In 2024, the IAEA Secretariat achieved gender parity in professional and senior management roles, fulfilling a goal set by Mr. Grossi when he took office in 2019, at a time when women represented only 30 percent of the Secretariat.
Mr. Grossi has received numerous accolades, including Brazil’s Order of Naval Merit, Austria’s Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold with Sash, Italy’s Order of Merit, and Kazakhstan’s National Medal on the 30th Anniversary of its independence. In 2023, he was named an honorary citizen of Rome and was recognized by the City of Buenos Aires as an Outstanding Personality in Political and Social Science. In 2024, Paraguay’s Honorable Chamber of Deputies awarded him the Orden Nacional al Mérito Comuneros. That same year, he received the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award from the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the Nuclear Energy Institute. In 2022, ANS also awarded Mr. Grossi and the IAEA a Presidential Citation for their work in Ukraine.