K-School Science Post Goes to Gov Prof Nye

An expert on nuclear weapons policy, both as an academic at Harvard and as a policy-maker within the government, will become the new head of the Center for Science and International Affairs (CSIA) on July 4.

Professor of Government Joseph S. Nye Jr., who served as deputy undersecretary of state from 1977 to 1979, said he was completes surprised when President Bok asked him to become the Center's second director.

Nye will replace the first director of the 12-year-old CSIA. Paul Doty, Mallinkrodi Professor of Biochemistry Doty could not be reached for comment.

The CSIA "budges science and public policy," said Assistant Professor Ashton B. Carter, a former research fellow at the CSIA and soon-to-be assistant director "But the bridge has two ends," added Carter, who said the center provides fellowships for both scientists and government experts.

These fellowships go out to promising young scholars in the field, said Larry Smith, a former executive director of the CSIA The center has produced a "who's who of the younger set" of experts in the international security field, he said.

The CSIA is "one of the best and largest" examiner of international security in the nation, said David M. Irons, director external affairs at the Kennedy school said. He added it is "that part of Harvard that knows and does the most about nuclear weapons and arms control."

Nye said he did not expect to implement any major changes within the center, adding that he has been very close to Doty and has helped shaped some of the policy. However, Nye said. "We're going to try to bring the product of our research to a wider audience and make it even more accessible to the policy-making community."

The CSIA was originally part of the Center for International Affairs (CFIA), until 1978 when it received an endowment from the Ford Foundation in order to become an independent center. It was the first endowed center to become part of the Kennedy School.

Nye, who holds a joint position in both the Kennedy School Faculty and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said he would be able to provide a link between the two organizations. Nye is on the executive board of the CSIA and will continue in that post while heading up the CSIA.

Relations between the two organizations were characterized as strained by an official at the Kennedy school who spoke on the condition he would not be named.