[Final reflections]: Leader plans to further study national security and WMDs

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.