Georgia Writers Association

David H. Hanks
Georgia native David H. Hanks was among the award winners of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General. He has held an international nuclear safeguards inspector post since September of 2002 at the IAEA headquarters located in the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria.

David’s first novel is based on the disappearance of his own mother, Hellen Griffin Hanks, from her workplace located in Valdosta, Georgia. Written as fiction, David takes you through the subsequent turmoil and anguish of growing up near the small town of Morven, Georgia while not knowing the whereabouts of his mother. A horrific discovery eight years after her disappearance helped to bring an end to David’s quest to find out what actually happened to her back in the fall of 1972. Writing The Disappearance gave David an opportunity to convey his emotional journey while also sharing a glimpse of South Georgia history in the 70’s and 80’s.

It was the early counsel given to him by his mother that helped to guide him into a successful life as a nuclear engineer and senior nuclear reactor operator at one of the largest boiling water nuclear reactors built in the world, near Jackson, Mississippi. The experience he acquired as a shift manager at Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Station in Mississippi and as a qualified chief reactor watch aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS Nimitz led David to an appointment as an international nuclear safeguards inspector by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).