Friday, 16 Jul 1993 Washington, DC
1. PHYSICIST NEAL LANE NAMED TO HEAD NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION!
Lane, who is Provost at Rice University, has been nominated by
President Clinton to fill the vacancy created by the departure of
Walter Massey
(WN 29 Jan 93). In selecting Lane, the
Administration seems to be reaffirming the key role of NSF in the support
of basic research. Lane, who first joined the Rice faculty in
1966, has remained remarkably productive in the theory of atomic
collisions while holding a series of administrative positions.
In 1979, he took a year of leave from Rice to direct the physics
division at NSF and later chaired the NSF Committee for Advanced
Scientific Computing that helped create the NSF supercomputer
centers. He was Chancellor of the University of Colorado at
Colorado Springs for two years before returning to Rice in 1986
as chief academic officer. Lane also served the APS in numerous
capacities, including chair of the Panel on Public Affairs.
2. PHYSICIST MARTHA KREBS NAMED TO HEAD OFFICE OF ENERGY RESEARCH
at the Department of Energy. Krebs has been an associate director
of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory since 1983, prior to that she was
staff director of the House Subcommittee on Energy Development
and Applications. She had been mentioned for the DOE job since
Will Happer was fired after a dispute with Vice President Gore's
office
(WN 7 May 93). A holdover from the Bush
Administration,
Happer had the temerity to suggest actually monitoring uv levels
before reacting to concerns about ozone depletion. Lysenko won.
3. APS SEARCH COMMITTEE FORMED TO SEEK A NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY!
Citing differences of view over Society management policies and
practices, N. Richard Werthamer has resigned as the Executive
Secretary of The American Physical Society, effective today. A
committee, chaired by past-president Ernest Henley, has been
formed to search for a successor. Pending appointment of a new
executive secretary, APS Treasurer Harry Lustig was designated
Acting Executive Secretary in addition to his other duties. APS
President Don Langenberg thanked Werthamer for his work with APS
and wished him success and satisfaction in future undertakings.
4. U.S. QUIETLY DROPS "BROAD INTERPRETATION" OF THE ABM TREATY.
Yet another relic of the "Star Wars" missile defense program has
been abandoned. In 1972, the Senate voted 88-2 to ratify the ABM
treaty with the understanding that the treaty banned development
and testing, as well as deployment, of space-based ABM systems.
Thirteen years later, however, a White House lawyer claimed to
find a loophole in the negotiating record that permitted testing
and development of systems based on "new physical principles"--
the so-called "broad interpretation." Like all religious visions,
only the faithful could see it. The lawyer, Abraham Sofaer, is
now working for Moammar Gadhafi, representing Libya in the Pan Am
103 case for an undisclosed fee. The Clinton Administration
this week reaffirmed the "narrow" interpretation of the ABM treaty.
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