UC President Robert Dynes
Why the UC chose a former LANL consultant for the Job
Annual Salary: $395,000
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Robert C. Dynes, Chancellor of UC San
Diego and active
Physics professor has been chosen to succeed Richard Atkinson,
beating
out among others, UCLA, UCSC, and UCSB's Chancellors in the
nation wide
search.
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The decision to give Dynes the helm of the world's premier
public
university is no doubt motivated by his connections with the
UC managed,
national nuclear weapons laboratories at Los Alamos (LANL) and
Livermore
(LLNL). The UC's management role of LANL has been put in
question by
the Bush administration. Dynes appointment seems to be a
strategic
move on the part of the UC to bolster its ability to keep
control of
the Lab, and prevent LLNL from suffering a similar fate.
Dynes connections with the nuclear weapons complex are
extensive.
According to today's Chronicle, Robert Dynes has served as a
consultant
to the labs for more than 25 years, is Vice Chair of the UC
President's
Council on the National Labs, and a member of the UC's five
person
Board of Oversight for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Dynes has
also served on the National Security Panel of the UC
President's Council
for the National Labs whose mission is to; "provide review and
guidance to UC on the Livermore and Los Alamos mission of
maintaining
the safety and reliability of the nationís nuclear
deterrent."(1).
During his service on the President's council Dynes worked
side by
side with William Friend, Council Chairman in 2000, and
retired executive
vice president of the Bechtel Group; Thomas A. Brooks III, a
retired
U.S. Navy rear admiral who served as director of Naval
Intelligence;
M. Staser Holcomb, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral; and
Jasper Arthur
Welch Jr., a retired U.S. Air Force major general who is a
consultant
to government and industry in the areas of advanced technology
and
strategic defense. (Ibid).
The same Chronicle story quotes San Diego attorney John
Davies, head
of the UC's search committee for a new president, stating,
"Dynes
expertise on the UC's role with the labs was a plus factor."
Dynes
himself has expressed that the UC under his direction will
most certainly
seek out and bid for the Los Alamos weapons lab contract in
2005. Rep.
Ellen Tauscher of Walnut Creek, whose district includes the
Livermore
weapons lab is quoted in the press as approving of Dynes'
appointment "[it
is] a symbol of the university's commitment to world class
science
and the important work of the UC-managed national defense
laboratories."
Dynes, it appears is a firm believer in the University's
management
of the nuclear weapons labs. His devotion to maintaining
university
management of most major research labs is evident in a speech
he gave
in April of 2003 at LANL entitled, "NUCLEAR AND CONVENTIONAL
FORCES:
ISSUES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY":
"In the late 1980s, I began to see that the R&D era
dominated
in some important fields by U.S. industrial laboratories was
coming
to an end. As the technology globalized, and as competition
intensified,
industry felt that research labs were just too expensive to
sustain.
It became clear that a new era of innovation - one of R, D,
& D,
or research, development, and shortened times to delivery -
would be
led by U.S. research universities and national labs."(3).
Dynes is probably correct in his analysis of what is
economical and
efficient for the production of new technologies. University
managed
labs have innumerous advantages over corporate management. His
rationality
and good analysis come to a crashing halt when it comes to
nuclear
weapons and war. Commenting on the "stockpile stewardship
program," a
fancy name for the research, design, and modification of
existing and
new nuclear weapons portrayed as a public service, Dynes
remarked;
"Our citizens, our allies, and nations who are not our allies
watch that stewardship very closely. They want to know whether
these
weapons are secure, and in the ultimate worst-case scenario,
whether
the weapons would perform reliably. They want to be assured
that we
have adequate margins and predictable behavior. Global
perception of
our scientific and technological competence is
essential."(Ibid).
Furthermore, commenting on his service as a member of the UC
President's
Council on the National Labs, Dynes outlined his mission
firmly "...at
the two weapons labs, the best science & technology was
applied
to keep the weapons stockpile safe and reliable." (Ibid).
Dynes sums up his belief in the mission and maintenance of
the Los
Alamos weapons lab by saying "I speak not as a UC spokesman
but
as a physicist who has taken great pride in service to the
labs." (Ibid).
Attached at the end of this article is the full text regarding
Dynes'
position on the UC management of the National Labs in which he
thoroughly
describes the unique function which UC management serves in
the national
nuclear weapons and military-science enterprises.
As Chancellor of UC San Diego, Robert Dynes headed one of the
more
militarize campus within the UC System. UCSD annually conducts
tens
of millions of dollars in contracted basic research for the
Department
of Defense and its sub-agencies. In 2000 this sum was
approximately
$31 million dollars (4). In 2001, military funded research
accounted
for 7.6% of the school's total research funding having jumped
to a
total amount of $38.95 million, an increase of 21.3% from the
year
before (5). Major recent awards for military funded science at
UCSD
include a $4.4 million grant from the DoD for a project
entitled "ONR
Ship Time and Administrative Fee," and a $3.6 million grant to
the "Center for Chips with Heterogenously Integrated
Photonics." (Ibid).
UC San Diego is home of the Scripps Institute for
Oceanography, a
heavily military funded center which conducts research in
fields of
environmental, oceanographic, and ecological importance. In
2001 the
Scripps institute garnered $19 million in DoD funding
accounting for
nearly 4% of the schools total research funds.
A recently established program at UC San Diego seeks to
bolster the
campuses ties with the LANL through a joint effort to funnel
engineering
students into employment and research at the weapons lab. A
recent
Los Alamos press release describes UCSD and LANL's
collaboration as "a
joint education initiative to train engineers in disciplines
that support
Los Alamos' mission of enhancing global security." The
initiative
is a comprehensive effort aimed at educating and placing the
next generation
of researchers from the UC into the weapons labs:
"This research will support critical infrastructure
management
in both the civil and defense sectors, including stewardship
of the
U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, and maintenance of bridges,
roads and
aircraft."
Los Alamos plans to hire approximately 300 engineers over the
next
five years, many of them early in their careers, and the
initiative
with the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering will help fill the
laboratory's
need for a well-trained workforce.
"A primary focus will be creation of a graduate-level,
research-based
engineering degree program co-located at UCSD and Los Alamos.
Students
will be required to participate in ongoing research at Los
Alamos or
at UCSD, and qualified students may opt to continue on for a
Ph.D.
Beginning this summer, four UCSD structural engineering
graduate students
will be awarded Los Alamos fellowships, and eventually as many
as 30
students a year may enroll in the program."(6).
An exemplary recent accomplishment of the Jacobs School of
Engineering
is the testing of Northrop Grumman's "Hunter Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle." The
military technology is described as;
"a key player Army's latest campaign in Iraq, was on-hand
at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering for a series of
structural
tests. The collaborative project, spearheaded by John
Kosmatka, a professor
of applied mechanics in the structural engineering department,
is another
example of the Schoolís continuing collaboration with
industry." (Ibid).
New UC President Robert Dynes is a typical example of an
administrator
with an interest and desire to maintain the
university-military relationship.
His work as consultant to the UC managed weapons labs, and his
stint
as UCSD Chancellor make him the ideal candidate for the new
post of
President. The UC's coming campaign to defend its role as
manager of
the LANL weapons labs it appears will be conducted well under
the orchestration
of Dynes.
"UC-NATIONAL
LABS: A BENEFICIAL
PARTNERSHIP"
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