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.



Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.