PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 21, No. 5, Sept. 6, 2001

ACDIS faculty members active in ‘ongoing dialogue’

Melissa Mitchell, News Bureau Staff Writer
(217) 333-5491; melissa@illinois.edu

While Pres. George W. Bush vigorously promotes plans to develop and deploy a National Missile Defense system, professors in the UI’s Program on Arms Control, Disarmament and International have been playing a more quiet, yet vital, role in the ongoing dialogue on national security issues.

In addition to math professor Julian Palmore’s contributions to the debate over NMD [see related story], ACDIS colleagues Fred Lamb, a professor of physics and astronomy, and Jeremiah Sullivan, head of the department of physics, are leading efforts to evaluate the science and technology behind the headlines.

Lamb is co-chair, with Daniel Kleppner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of an independent study group charged by the American Physical Society with exploring the technical feasibility of intercepting and destroying an attacking missile while it is still in powered flight – an approach known as boost phase interception. Lamb previously chaired the APS advisory committee that recommended that the society should address key questions concerning the technical feasibility of BPI systems.

The APS study group began meeting in July, and expects to release its findings in a report titled "The Science and Technology of Boost Phase Systems for National Missile Defense" in February 2002.

Sullivan was recently appointed to a key advisory committee of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Sullivan said the NNSA is a semi-autonomous governmental agency formed by Congress as a result of the reorganization of the Department of Energy last year. The agency is responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons, DOE’s weapons laboratories as well as for all nonproliferation technology programs funded by DOE.

The committee membership includes academics, former government and military officials, former high-level DOE and Department of Defense officials and former members of Congressional committees. Sullivan, who is the committee’s lead adviser for nonproliferation science and technology issues, said the group expects to submit an interim report on its findings in November.

Prior to the reorganization of the DOE, Sullivan chaired a now-defunct advisory committee for DOE’s Nonproliferation and National Security Office. The committee was charged with reviewing the work of that office’s nonproliferation research and engineering unit.
Sullivan also serves on external advisory committees for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and for the Nonproliferation, Arms Control and International Security and National Security Division of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.