David B. Waller '70 is the Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a position he has held since January 1993. As such, Waller is the highest-ranking American in the United Nations agencies based in Vienna, Austria, a U.N. headquarter city. Along with being the IAEA's head of management, he serves as vice-chair of the U.N. system-wide High Level Committee on Management, reporting to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan who appointed him to the position.

In 2003, the IAEA was the recipient of the annual Albert Schweitzer International University Science and Peace Prize that Waller accepted on its behalf. The agency, with a roster of 138 member countries, has a staff of more than 2,200 people in Vienna, regional offices in New York, Geneva, Toronto and Tokyo, laboratories in Austria and Monaco and inspectors and experts working around the world. It is charged with verifying nations' nuclear non-proliferation commitments, including the special cases involving North Korea, Iran, Libya and Iraq, advancing the safety of nuclear power reactors and promoting peaceful uses of nuclear techniques in areas such as medicine, agriculture, water resources management and industry.

Born in Decatur, Ill., Waller was an economics major at Denison, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in 1970. At the University of Tulsa Law School, he was managing editor of the Law Review and graduated first in his class in 1973, earning a J.D. He was recruited into the Attorney General's Honor Program at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he served from 1974 to 1978 as a trial attorney. From 1978 to 1981, he joined the private sector representing corporate clients in litigation and antitrust matters with Hogan and Hartson, a Washington, D.C. law firm.

Waller served at the White House from 1981 to 1986 as legal counsel to President Ronald Reagan. In 1986, Waller was nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs, a sub-cabinet position that he held through 1989. In that capacity he served as the Secretary of Energy's chief adviser and spokesman on international energy policy and emergency preparedness programs. He represented the United States at various multinational agencies and was responsible for the formulation and implementation of bilateral energy relations and programs with foreign governments. In 1989, Waller was awarded the Secretary's Award, the highest award given by Department of Energy for his outstanding leadership. His work in the international area earned him the Superior Achievement Award from the Secretary in 1990.

Waller has remained actively involved with Denison, serving as national Annual Fund chair and Alumni Council president. In 1991, he was awarded an Alumni Citation from Denison and named to the Board of Trustees on which he served until 1997. In Vienna where he resides with his wife and son, Waller has been a Commissioner of the Fulbright Commission and a member of the Board of Advisers of Webster University, the largest American-based undergraduate and graduate school in that city. A frequent speaker worldwide, Waller is an outdoor sports enthusiast and enjoys distance running, skiing and cycling.