UC Hires Exec to Oversee 3 Labs

University of California regents have hired their first vice president for laboratory management, an action required by the U.S Energy Department under terms of its latest contract with the university to run three national labs.

The Energy Department extended its long-running contract with the university in January, despite serious security breaches at the labs in recent years. Under the contract, the university will continue to manage the three laboratories, including the nation’s two largest nuclear weapons labs, Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore near Oakland.

In exchange, however, the contract required the university to improve its oversight of the facilities.

The new vice president, John P. McTague, a former Ford Motor Co. executive, UCLA chemistry professor and longtime governmental science advisor, will have primary responsibility for the university’s management of the labs for the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

In a statement, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham praised McTague’s appointment and said it was important that the university “continue on the track of closer lab management and oversight” that began with the January contract.

The university has come under fire in recent years for highly publicized security lapses at Los Alamos, including the disappearance last June of two computer hard drives loaded with classified nuclear weapons data. The hard drives were later found hidden behind a photocopier.

In 1999, nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee was fired from Los Alamos amid an FBI investigation into alleged espionage. Lee eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of mishandling nuclear data, and prosecutors dismissed 58 other counts against him.

The University of California has managed the Los Alamos lab under contract to the Energy Department since 1943 and the Livermore lab since it opened a few years later. It also manages the Lawrence Berkeley lab.

McTague, 62, said Friday that the new position, which he begins June 1 with a salary of $300,000, is intended to clarify authority in the labs within the university.

Before joining Ford in 1986, McTague served as deputy director and acting director of the White House office of science and technology policy, and acting science advisor to President Reagan. From 1970 to 1982, he taught chemistry at UCLA.