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Notebook: November 5, 1997
New director at downsized PPPL
Lab focuses on smaller fusion experiments, builds new machine
ROBERT J. GOLDSTON *77, a professor of astrophysical sciences who has spent his career at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), became the facility's fifth director, in July. His appointment comes at a time of transition for PPPL. The lab is entering a new phase of research following a 15-year experimental program on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor. The TFTR produced record amounts of fusion before being shut down in April, due to a congressionally mandated restructuring of the fusion program.
According to Goldston, PPPL will continue to work on fusion--the nuclear energy that fuels the Sun and the stars--but focus on smaller fusion experiments, collaboration with national and international scientists, and applications of plasma science to nonfusion research and related technologies. Plasmas, Goldston explained, are not used solely for fusion; they are also used in manufacturing computer chips and medical instruments, for example.
PPPL, a national laboratory funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) and managed by the university, is preparing to build the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), a machine that will study an advanced method for confining plasmas--super-hot mixes of gasses. Its mission is to develop a more energy-efficient and cost-effective fusion power source. About $17 million of the lab's current funding is slated for this project. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Washington, and Columbia University will also work on NSTX. Operation is expected to begin in April 1999.
Additionally, other experiments will be pursued, including modifications of the stellarator, an earlier plasma confinement concept, conceived by the late Lyman Spitzer *38, emeritus professor of astronomy. PPPL scientists will assist at other tokamaks and with other fusion experiments, said Goldston, and scientists from other institutions will work on NSTX and the stellarator.
PPPL's budget for fiscal year 1998, which began October 1, was expected to be more than $50 million at press time. PPPL has a contract with the DOE through 2001. The total budget for the U.S. fusion-energy-sciences program is $232 million.
Approximately 400 employees currently work at the lab. On July 1, 35 employees were laid off, part of a total reduction--voluntary or involuntary--of 160 workers since October 1, 1996, which reflects reduced federal funding at the lab. At PPPL's peak, the lab employed 1,300.
As for PPPL's future, Goldston is reluctant to make predictions. "Congress makes decisions on a yearly basis. If there is more concern about global warming or lines at gas stations, there may be more money put toward fusion," he said. "If the economy turns sour, there is the possibility funds for fusion research will go down." Goldston was associate director for research at PPPL before this appointment. He succeeds Ronald C. Davidson *66.
New program in law and public affairs
THE UNIVERSITY is establishing a new Program in Law and Public Affairs that it plans to have in place by the fall of 2000. A collaboration of the Department of Politics, the Woodrow Wilson School, and the Center for Human Values, it will focus on law, ethics, and society, said Amy Gutmann, a professor of politics and chairwoman of the program's steering committee.
The program will address ways in which legal systems, legal practices, and laws can contribute to justice in societies and to the well-being of individuals, said Gutmann. It will also seek to create an intellectual forum for discussion of ways in which legal systems and practices should be shaped by changing human and social circumstances, and by new knowledge of the world around us.
Housed at the Woodrow Wilson School, the law and public affairs program will sponsor research, conferences, and lectures. It will employ a director, an administrator, and several visiting scholars, who might teach undergraduate courses, said Gutmann. In addition, she said, the university is tentatively planning to recruit new faculty members to teach courses in this area.
Those people involved in the law and public affairs program will explore how well social purposes are served and individual rights are respected by the various legal institutions that are commonly identified with democracy in America. These institutions include the adversary system in civil and criminal law, the jury system, and winner-take-all elections.
Depending upon the particular interests and expertise of the program director, faculty, and visiting scholars, the program from year to year will frame such questions as: What kinds of laws and legal institutions can really help the homeless? How should new information technologies influence moral and legal approaches to free speech? How can campaign financing work effectively to support the fair workings of a democratic system and to respect free speech?
Making and keeping peace in Croatia
THE HEADLINES FROM Bosnia and Herzegovina offer a dismaying drumbeat: Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadic carries on a power struggle with President Biljana Plavsic; Karadic flouts international authority as the de facto ruler in the Pale region and ignores charges of war crimes brought against him. Meanwhile, a team of diplomats squabbles over whether to certify local elections held in mid-September, elections complicated not only by meddling from ousted rulers but by the thousands of refugees who had the right to vote in absentia.
Trouble in the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia is no surprise to Professor of Politics and International Affairs Michael W. Doyle, who became director of the Center for International Studies in July. Nearly two years after the United States brokered a peace agreement in Dayton, Ohio, among Serb, Croatian, and Muslim leaders, the former Yugoslavia remains a fractured place. Yet, Doyle says, a relatively successful operation in a part of Croatia, Eastern Slavonia, offers hope and many lessons for the United Nations. This fall, students in Peacemaking (Woodrow Wilson School 454) will hear of these lessons, now that Doyle has tailored the course to give more attention to what is perhaps the toughest peacekeeping mission the UN has ever undertaken.
EASTERN SLAVONIA
The course will cast the situation in the former Yugoslavia alongside other stories of failure and success, as students examine what works and what doesn't for the modern United Nations. Students will hear firsthand observations from Doyle, who spent the summer traveling in Eastern Slavonia, an area that saw much bloodshed but one that has recovered more rapidly than Bosnia, where the military arm of the UN operation, led by NATO, is collapsing. Eastern Slavonia, the easternmost province of Croatia, is now under UN administration.
What makes Eastern Slavonia worth studying, Doyle says, is that it serves as a capsule of the larger problems facing the entire peacekeeping operation in the former Yugoslavia: the ability of the UN to guarantee human rights; the ability of the international community to help refugees return home; and the ability of outsiders to help restart the shattered economy.
Eastern Slavonia has benefited from something that Doyle says has been missing elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia: direct control from a single, forceful leader, in this case, U.S. Air Force Major General Jacques Klein.
For Doyle, the essential questions about Eastern Slavonia are: Will the peace last? Will the basic rights of Serbs in the region be protected after the operation ends in January 1998? Students in the course will tackle these questions and other issues, including the root causes of civil war and the effectiveness of outside assistance in rebuilding a nation.
Doyle has spent years examining the common threads of war and peace. His book Ways of War and Peace, published this year, examines classical political theory on interstate relations. In the final chapter, Doyle ponders "zones of peace" and balances of power that may exist in the future, as the absence of a bilateral Cold War structure gives way to four or five powers and multiple smaller conflicts.
TWO-STEP SOLUTION
In December 1995, Doyle coauthored an essay with Elizabeth Cousens, of the International Peace Academy in New York, that served as a road map for the problems that have befallen the UN operation in Bosnia. The Dayton peace accords, Doyle and Cousens wrote, correctly identified a two-step solution--a "cooling off" period followed by a period of intense "nation building." Both phases would require the presence of NATO forces, including U.S. troops, working under a UN mandate. But the American public only heard about the first piece of the mission and was told the operation would be complete in a year. While the first group of soldiers has been replaced, the perception of a broken promise makes it more difficult to maintain support among the public and the Congress.
Doyle and Cousens also noted that the Dayton accords relied on many countries and international agencies to carry out the nation-building phase. However, the Dayton document did not spell out clear lines of authority. The setup "is almost designed to provide excuses, to blame somebody else" if failure occurs, Doyle says.
MANY SUCCESS STORIES
Students in Doyle's Peacemaking class will also examine UN operations in El Salvador, Cambodia, Mozambique, the Persian Gulf, Rwanda, and Somalia. Students will then be asked to write a paper evaluating a UN mission not discussed in class. They will have plenty of choices, including many success stories.
According to Doyle, the end of the Cold War offered the UN a chance to become "what it was meant to be." At the same time, the fall of Communism throughout Europe dampened the American public's willingness to get involved overseas.
So what works? Doyle says the UN succeeds in the area of implementing negotiated peace settlements, including election monitoring, but is not good at enforcement operations, such as imposing a settlement on hostile factions. Doyle believes those tasks, when justified, are best left to individual nations, or to NATO.
Operations succeed, he says, when there is coordination on the ground. As the case of Eastern Slavonia proves, Doyle adds, someone has to be in charge. Good leaders can convince brave refugees to return home, to set up a new economy, and to feel secure. "Leadership," Doyle said, "helps make vicious circles into virtuous circles."
--Mary Caffrey
Wilson School offers one-year master's
THE WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL is offering a new one-year master's degree in public policy (MPP). The MPP program is designed for mid-career professionals, with at least seven years of relevant work experience, who need advanced training as they rise to higher levels of responsibility, said Robert L. Hutchings, assistant dean for academic affairs at the Wilson School. The program provides training in quantitative reasoning and policy analysis, as well as individual programs of study tailored to students' particular backgrounds and interests. MPP students will also participate in task-force projects, for which they will analyze current policy issues and formulate policy recommendations.
"The public service arena has changed dramatically," said Hutchings. "Even experienced professionals need strong quantitative and analytical skills to succeed in this increasingly complex working environment." MPP candidates, he added, need greater skills in organizational behavior, leadership, and management. And they need intellectual broadening, because typically they have been working in fairly narrow tracks--disaster assistance in South Asia, for example.
The first MPP cohort comprises 14 students from diverse backgrounds, including a journalist with the Economic Times in India; an economic-development manager with CARE in Bangladesh; a software engineer working at a Brooklyn drug-treatment center; a development officer with the New Zealand ministry of foreign affairs and trade; and a member of the Inspector General's staff at the CIA who is also a veteran of the White House Situation Room.
The MPP program complements the Wilson School's existing two-year master's in public affairs (MPA) program, which addresses the needs of more recent college graduates. "MPPs bring real-world experience into the classroom," said Hutchings, "where they can discuss these issues side-by-side with MPA students eager for firsthand knowledge."
Research Shorts: Health-care costs, Bioremediation
HEALTH-CARE COSTS: Employers have seen health-insurance costs fall during the 1990s, the result, many experts have said, of companies switching to managed-care plans. But according to a study by Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Alan B. Krueger and Helen Levy *95, a graduate student in economics, published in the journal Annual Proceedings of the National Tax Association, managed care is not that much cheaper than traditional fee-for-service plans. The researchers found that employer costs have waned because of a decline in health-insurance premiums for both fee-for-service and managed-care plans, and a steady erosion in the number of employees covered by their employers. Looking to the future, Krueger sees no reason for employers to stop the trend of covering fewer workers.
BIOREMEDIATION: The Department of Geosciences and a local bioremediation firm, Envirogen, are the principal investigators in a three-year, $2.8 million project funded by the Department of Energy to develop bacteria that can penetrate the ground quickly to clean up water supplies. The researchers will inject bacteria into the ground--a process called bioaugmentation--and monitor the rate of migration, then determine how best to enhance their speed and distance, said Tullis C. Onstott *81, an associate professor of geosciences. The farther and faster the bacteria travel, the cheaper it will make cleanup efforts. Bioaugmentation is a cost-effective alternative to traditional "pump and treat" cleanup methods. But a difficulty with it is moving the bacteria, which adhere strongly to solids, within an aquifer throughout the contaminated zone.
In Memoriam: Prof. Leslie K. Johnson
LESLIE K. JOHNSON, a lecturer in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology since 1989, died on May 16 of breast cancer. She was 51. Johnson was an expert on the behavioral ecology of insects. She was active in the Teacher Preparation program and advised local science teachers. Born in New York City, Johnson earned her 1974 Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Peace Corps in Lesotho. She had been a faculty member of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, for 13 years.
Varsity athletic participation
AMONG THE IVIES, Princeton had the largest percentage of undergraduates participating in varsity athletics in 1996-97. (Parentheses indicate undergraduate enrollments/number of varsity teams.) Stanford, Duke, and Michigan are included for comparison to the eight Ivy League institutions. Only Harvard offered more varsity sports than Princeton. Duke's information is from 1995-96.
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