The National Science Foundation gave a $2.9 million Integrative Graduate Education Research and Traineeship grant to the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
The grant will go toward the funding of the education of Ph.D. students who participate in a public policy program designed to encourage the study of nuclear weapons.
“”NSF believes, as do we, that there aren’t enough Ph.D. students studying nuclear weapons, their proliferation or their possible terrorist use,”” said IGCC Director of Development and Special Projects Robert Bee.
IGCC will establish a six-year program called Public Policy and Nuclear Threats: Training the Next Generation, which will fund the educational careers of two cohorts of graduate students in 2003 and 2004. The program starts this fall.
Graduate students from any area of study are eligible for the fellowship support as long as they demonstrate academic interests related to public policy and technology issues surrounding nuclear weapons.
Students who are chosen for the program will participate in intensive summer training, interdisciplinary seminars and policy workshops on the historical, political and technological issues concerning nuclear weapons. They will also be able to work as interns at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National laboratories, both of which are managed by the University of California, as well as work in Washington, D.C., and abroad.
Both faculty and Ph.D. students from the nine UC campuses will be involved in the program. Bee said that IGCC expects students from the areas of physics, engineering, political science and history to apply.
“”This is an incredible opportunity for students to get their doctorates paid for,”” Bee said.
The organization has already received over 50 applications from across the nation.
“”I think this is a great program,”” said Eleanor Roosevelt College sophomore Kristine Barcarse. “”Especially in times like these, with what’s been going on in the Middle East, we need the best of the best out there.””
Based at UCSD, IGCC is a statewide UC research center that studies the causes of international conflict and helps devise options for solving conflicts through international conflict.
The IGERT grant was given to the UC system in part because of its management of the country’s chief nuclear weapons laboratories, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos.
Susan Shirk of the UCSD Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies is in charge of the project. Others involved from UCSD include Barbara Walter of IR/PS, as well as David Lake, Philip Roeder and William Chandler of the political science department.
