Vincent Ialenti is an American government official andanthropologist who studies the culture ofnuclear energy and weapons waste organizations.^[1] He is the author ofDeep Time Reckoning,^[2] an anthropological exploration of how experts assessed the impact of Finland'sOnkalo spent nuclear fuel repository on future ecosystems and civilizations.^[3][4][5]

Ialenti works in theU.S. Department of Energy'sOffice of Nuclear Energy.^[6][7] He is also a Research Associate atCalifornia State Polytechnic University, Humboldt's Department of Environmental Studies.^[8] Prior to his federal service, Ialenti was a MacArthur Assistant Research Professor atGeorge Washington University'sElliott School of International Affairs^[9][10] and held fellowships at theUniversity of Southern California,^[11] theUniversity of British Columbia,^[12]The Berggruen Institute,^[13] andCornell University's Society for the Humanities.^[14]

During the Biden Administration, Ialenti led theU.S. Department of Energy's Consent-Based Siting Consortia: twelve project teams - drawn from academia, nonprofits, the private sector, and beyond - awarded $24m to facilitate public understanding of spent nuclear fuel management.^[15][16] From 2022-2024, he hosted a DOE webinar series on participatory governance, community engagement, and sociopolitical innovations for solving America's nuclear waste stalemate.^[17][18][19]

Ialenti holds aMSc in "Law, Anthropology, and Society" from theLondon School of Economics and aPhD in Sociocultural Anthropology fromCornell University.^[20][21] At Cornell, he taught an interdisciplinary writing seminar calledNuclear Imagination: Technology and Worlds.^[22][23] In 2017, he became the first anthropologist with a feature article inPhysics Today, the flagship publication of theAmerican Institute of Physics.^[24][25]

From 2017 to 2019, Ialenti conducted a field study exploring the political, economic, and organizational drivers behind transuranic nuclear weapons waste "drum breach" accidents atIdaho National Laboratory and theWaste Isolation Pilot Plant.^[26][27][28] He developed this study in collaboration with geologistAllison Macfarlane, the former Chair of theU.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.^[29]

MIT Press andPenguin Random House published Ialenti's book,Deep Time Reckoning, in 2020.^[30] The book examined Finnish nuclear waste companyPosiva's initiative to model far future societies, bodies, and ecosystems—and how their efforts were enabled by the Finnish populace's high levels of trust ingeotechnical engineers, regulators, and ministry experts.^[31][32][33]

In 2021, Ialenti became the first anthropologist with an article published in theAmerican Nuclear Society's technical journalNuclear Technology.^[34][35] Later that year, Ialenti was featured alongside ambient musicianBrian Eno in aHeadspace meditation app podcast about long-term thinking.^[36]

Ialenti is married to conservationist Allegra Wrocklage.^[37][38]

Ialenti is an Associate of theLong Now Foundation in San Francisco, California.^[39]

• Ialenti, Vincent (2020).Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now. Cambridge, Massachusetts:MIT Press.ISBN 9780262539265.

• Vincent Ialenti biography fromCornell University Arts & Sciences
• Vincent Ialenti publications indexed byGoogle Scholar
• Vincent Ialenti biography fromCal Poly Humboldt

• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• American anthropologists
• Binghamton University alumni
• Cornell University alumni
• Elliott School of International Affairs faculty
• People from Gardner, Massachusetts
• Living people

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