NSF Award Abstract - #0221706

AWSFL008-DS3

IGERT: Public Policy and Nuclear Threats: Training the Next Generation

Abstract

The Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), a multi-campus research institute of the University of California, is establishing an IGERT program to train NSF Fellows on Public Policy and Nuclear Threats. IGCC will use its long-established programs on all nine campuses of the University of California and institutional ties with Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories to implement this program. During the Cold War, nuclear threats drove investments and keen young minds into the study of nuclear weapons issues. Today, the incentive to become experts in nuclear matters is much reduced. Yet, the nuclear threat has not gone away. As has been underscored by the events of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath, it is time to build a new community of scholars and practitioners trained in strategic analysis, nuclear policy issues, the roles of nuclear weapons, the regional and global realities that comprise today's nuclear threats, and in traditional and prospective responses ranging from arms control to nonproliferation to counter-proliferation. The principal goals of the program are: to attract and train the next generation of strategic thinkers to address the public policy issues of tomorrow about nuclear threats; to produce new incentives for interdisciplinary research in the field of public policy and nuclear threats; to provide students with access to organizations and individuals engaged in nuclear policy development at home and abroad; to develop career opportunities at such organizations for post-doctoral employment; and, ultimately to provide the expertise the United States needs to develop sound nuclear policies in a changing international environment. Another important goal is to create an interdisciplinary and intergenerational community of scholars who can learn from one another and create synergies across disciplines that last well beyond this program. The IGERT program is designed to achieve these goals. Two groups of approximately ten UC doctoral dissertation students will be chosen by statewide competitive selection, and supported fully for five years each. IGERT Fellows will be supported for one of these years by their respective UC departments that will provide research or teaching assistantships in nuclear policy-related topics. IGCC will work with science, social science, and humanities departments to recruit new Ph.D. students for this program. Applications will be reviewed and Fellows selected by a statewide interdisciplinary subcommittee of the IGCC steering committee. IGCC, Ph.D. programs on the UC campuses, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories, and senior mentors will team to conduct this program. Students will receive their fundamental Ph.D. education in their home departments; this education will be enhanced by a series of required IGERT training activities: a four-week summer training seminar on the historical and current security implications of nuclear weapons both globally and regionally, including their strategic and political roles, arms control, nonproliferation, missile defense, terrorism, and related technology issues; a research or teaching assistantship; two-month summer internship at Lawrence Livermore or Los Alamos National Laboratory; an overseas fellowship in Asia or Europe; a summer policy internship at a governmental or non-governmental organization in Washington, DC; and monthly interdisciplinary video-conferences focused on contemporary research issues surrounding nuclear weapons and public policy. Where appropriate and possible, additional UC students will be invited to participate in IGERT training activities.

IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fifth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-one institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.