IRVINE : Unocal Chairman Joins Science Council

Unocal Corp. board chairman Richard J. Stegemeier has been appointed to the Irvine-based California Council of Science and Technology.

Stegemeier, 62, of Anaheim was selected to serve a three-year term by the council’s 10-member board of directors, board Chairman William R. Frazer said.

“Stegemeier brings to his appointment on the council an outstanding background of leadership in technology (and) industry at both the national and state levels,” said Frazer, who is University of California senior vice president for academic affairs.

The 21-member council represents a unique alliance of industry leaders and California’s major public and private research and teaching universities. It was created at the request of the Legislature in 1989 expressly to examine public policy questions relating to science and technology and the state’s competitiveness in these areas.

Stegemeier, a petroleum research engineer, received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri in Rolla in 1950 and a master’s degree from Texas A&M; University in 1951. He began his career with Unocal in 1951, rising through the ranks to become president and chief operating officer in 1985. He was named chairman in 1989.