• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

It may be hard to associate the grim issues of war and nuclear weapons with rosy-cheeked Albert Carnesale, but UCLA’s chancellor is among the nation’s top experts on nuclear proliferation and national security.

Though the chancellor’s current administrative position is far from his field of expertise in nuclear engineering and public policy, his contributions to both fields have his colleagues lauding him and many universities and government institutions seeking his knowledge on related matters.

Carnesale plans to step down from his post as chancellor on June 30 and return to teaching at UCLA after yearlong sabbatical during which he plans to resume research work within his field. He will be a professor of public policy and mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Carnesale, a nuclear engineer who became interested in nuclear policy and was able to combine the technical and policy dimensions of the issues, has authored many articles and books relating the fields. These include “Living with Nuclear Weapons,” in which he and his co-authors discuss the repercussions of nuclear weapons and the consequences created within the political scheme.

Graham Allison, the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, has co-authored books with Carnesale and worked concurrently with Carnesale while both conducted research at Harvard.

Allison, who called Carnesale’s contribution to the books they have written “seminal,” said colleagues sharing Carnesale’s field of expertise at Harvard “judged (Carnesale) to be super-smart, well-informed about issues of nuclear weapons and strategy, and to have a good sense of humor.”

Particularly, Allison said he was impressed most with Carnesale’s work in the 1970s and 1980s when “he was clarifying the ways in which nuclear weapons might spread and the actions to be taken to prohibit the spread of weapons.”

Carnesale’s discipline of study has led him to apply his vast knowledge in forums including international committees on arms control and by serving a senior position at the Martin Marietta company, which built missiles and developed aerospace technologies and electronics.

Carnesale received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art in New York. He went on to earn his master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1961 at Drexel University in Pennsylvania.

He then earned his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from North Carolina State University in 1966.

Applications of mechanical engineering include areas such as design of machines used in manufacturing, engines and power-generating equipment.

During the Cold War, because of Carnesale’s expertise in nuclear mechanics, he was called on to serve as a U.S. delegate at the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, where the U.S. and the Soviet Union discussed limitations on each country’s stock of nuclear weapons.

As a result, SALT restricted the development of ballistic-missile launchers as well as provided for the addition of new submarine ballistic-missile launchers, once the same number of older intercontinental ballistic missiles had been dismantled.

Carnesale’s continued involvement in national and international matters fueled his growing knowledge of nuclear arms and public policy with respect to weapons proliferation.

Carnesale was called on again to serve as a U.S. delegate to the International Nuclear Cycle Evaluation, which was a multinational meeting intended to consider and recommend relationships between civilian and military uses of nuclear energy.

His expertise in nuclear engineering interwoven with public policy issues landed him faculty and administrative positions at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, beginning in 1974.

During his 23-year tenure at Harvard, Carnesale’s area of study was focused on international relations, national security policy and nuclear arms control.

Carnesale said he would like to continue research in the coming year in the field of national security, but with particular emphasis on “weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons and the nuclear proliferation problem.”

“In fact, it was (getting) back into that (which) was my principle motivation to step down as chancellor when I did,” he added.

Carnesale’s shift from the engineering to public policy aspects of nuclear weapons is not unusual.

“It is common for most engineering faculty who receive government grants to be involved on committees that serve as a sort of ‘self-governance’ of the programs they are involved with,” said Neil Morley, adjunct associate professor in the UCLA Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.

Many students have had the opportunity to discuss the topics of nuclear engineering and public policy with Carnesale – he taught a Fiat Lux course called “Rethinking National Security.”

In addition to his work with undergraduate students, Carnesale also has had the opportunity to work within his field during his term at UCLA.

He was appointed to the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board while serving as chancellor. The board, which consists of presidents and chancellors of several prominent U.S. universities, is designed to create a better understanding between the FBI and higher-education leaders within the realm of academic freedom and privacy.

Allison said Carnesale will be a “visitor at the (Belfer) Center” at Harvard for the next year to continue his work within the field,” though Allison said he hopes Carnesale will stay longer.

But for the next year, Carnesale has even more plans.

In addition to continuing research in the field of national security, Carnesale said he plans to learn more about biology, biomedicine and human genetics because he believes they present “our society with enormous opportunities, but also with enormous challenges, and it’s important to think about how we best prepare society to deal with both of those.”

Carnesale also plans to do research on issues of higher education.

“I’m particularly concerned with the ability of public universities to compete with the best (private universities), because, first of all, it’s important for any state west of the Mississippi River,” he said. “If you think about where all the outstanding private universities are, California has got a population of 38 million people, we’ve got three private research universities.”

With reports from Charles Proctor, Bruin senior staff.