Media Contacts: -Anne Middleton, UCSD, (858) 534-2777, Ronald Bee, UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, (858) 534-6429

UCSD’S FOUNDING CHANCELLOR HERBERT YORK TO BE PRESENTED WITH UC BERKELEY’S PRESTIGIOUS CLARK KERR AWARD ON OCTOBER 27

UCSD’s Founding Chancellor Herbert F. York, a leader in national security issues, has been awarded this year's Clark Kerr Award for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education. The founder and first director of UC’s systemwide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), which is based at UCSD, York will receive the award - the highest honor bestowed by UC Berkeley's Academic Senate – at an awards dinner October 27 at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club.

"Herb York was a genius in helping to create the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and at moving UCSD from Roger Revelle's grand vision and early remarkable recruitment to a well-functioning and all-around research university of the first rank," said Clark Kerr, former UC president and professor emeritus of business administration, who will preside over the awards ceremony with UC President Richard Atkinson and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl. "It took good judgment, quiet persistence, a firm grasp of reality and a refined capacity for persuasion, and Herb York had them all."

Established in 1968 to honor individuals who have made an extraordinary contribution to the advancement of higher education, the Clark Kerr Award recognizes York for his leadership in the arms control movement and nuclear energy. Long known for his commitment to social responsibility in the advancement of science and public policy, York currently serves as founding chairman of the UCSD Diversity Council. He also is a member of the UC President's Council on Nuclear Laboratories.

In 1943 at the age of 21, York came to UC Berkeley to serve as a scientist on the Manhattan Project, which yielded the first atomic bomb. Six years later, he obtained a Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley, where he currently is professor emeritus of physics.

In 1953, he became the first director of the UC-operated Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. During the following years, he worked in various capacities in Washington D.C., including as an advisor to six U.S. presidents on arms and disarmament. From 1979-81, he was ambassador and chief negotiator for the Comprehensive Test Ban Negotiations under President Carter. He also was cofounder of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).

In 1961, York was recruited as UCSD’s first chancellor and continued in that capacity until 1964. York remained at UCSD as a professor of physics, becoming dean of graduate studies in 1968 and acting chancellor from 1970-72. In 1983, he founded IGCC and currently serves as IGCC’s director emeritus. He also is professor emeritus of physics at UCSD.

As an educator, scientist, Presidential advisor and leader in national security issues, York has been committed to merging scientific advancements with public policy that emphasizes social responsibility. In recognition for his leadership in the arms control movement and his work in nuclear energy, earlier this year he received the prestigious Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Board, the policymaking arm of the National Science Foundation. Previous honors have included the American Physical Society’s Leo Szilard Award in 1994 and the Federation of American Scientists’ Public Service Award in 1993. He was also a recipient of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Ernest O. Lawrence Memorial Award in 1962.

York is the author of six books: Arms Control (Readings from Scientific American, W.H. Freeman, 1973); The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller and the Superbomb (W. H. Freeman, 1976); Race to Oblivion: A Participant’s View of the Arms Race (Simon and Schuster, 1978); Making Weapons, Talking Peace: A Physicist’s Journey from Hiroshima to Geneva (Harper & Row, 1987); A Shield in Space? Technology, Politics and the Strategic Defense Initiative (U. of Calif. Press, 1988, with Sanford Lakoff); and Arms and the Physicist, (American Physical Society, 1994).