Sitara Noor

Bio

Sitara Noor is a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at Stanford University, California. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science in July 2025 from University of Vienna. Her research interests include nuclear security, non-proliferation, and strategic stability, with a particular focus on South Asia. She was formerly a Managing the Atom Fellow at Belfer Center from 2022 to 2024. In 2023, she was a Fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome. She also held the position of Research Fellow at VCDNP in Vienna, Austria, during 2016-2017. Earlier in her career, she worked as an International Relations Analyst at Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (2008 to 2015).
In addition to her research roles, Noor has taught as a lecturer at several institutions, including the National University of Modern Languages, the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Quaid-i-Azam University, the Foreign Services Academy of Pakistan, and the Information Services Academy of Pakistan.
Noor was a member of the International Panel of Experts for the Nuclear Security Index 2023, published by the Nuclear Threat Initiative. She has also been a South Asian Voices Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Center (2019–2020), a Visiting Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories (2019 and 2013), and at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California (2013).
From 2012 to 2020, she served as Country Coordinator for the University of Gothenburg's "Variety of Democracy" project. Noor frequently contributes to national and international platforms, including Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, The News, The National Interest, The Diplomat, and South Asian Voices at the Stimson Center, writing extensively on nuclear security and related topics.

Stanford Advisors

• Harold Trinkunas, Postdoctoral Research Mentor
• Scott Sagan, Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor