Albert Carnesale (born July 2, 1936) is an American academic and a specialist in arms control and national security.
From 1970 to 1972, he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) with the Soviet Union—a major step towards controlling nuclear weapons.
[7] The first person in his family to attend college, he began his university education at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, completing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1957.
[5] Carnesale served on the nuclear engineering faculty at NCSU from 1962 to 1969 and as professor and head of the Division of University Studies from 1972 to 1974.
[10] Carnesale became a member of the Harvard faculty in 1974, and concentrating on the study of international relations, national security policy, and nuclear arms control.
[11] A decade later, Carnesale became dean and was charged with restructuring the school, which faced a budget deficit,[12] and served in that post from 1991 to 1995.
According to a lecturer at the School, Carnesale was appointed "because by the force of his personality, his great sense of humor and his capacity for getting to the heart of things quickly, he defused tensions.
"[13] When the New York Times announced the appointment, Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine described Carnesale as "an exceptional human being."
At the time of Carnesale's appointment, the Kennedy School faced "a debate over its identity," as tension developed between faculty who were professional scholars and those who were practitioners.
In that position he coordinated the university's central administration and oversaw academic programs that extended beyond Harvard's individual schools.
He was key to the university's $2.1 billion capital campaign and efforts to apply information technology to academic and administrative operations.
[18] While chancellor, he wrote and spoke about the "public-private gap in higher education," presenting funding models that could potentially enable public institutions to "remain true to the basic values on which they were founded: excellence and access for qualified students, regardless of ability to pay.
[20] When Carnesale was appointed at UCLA, California's Proposition 209 had just gone into effect, forbidding all state institutions from giving preference in admissions based on race or ethnicity.
"[21] In May 1998, 88 UCLA students were arrested for refusing to leave a building during a 12-hour non-violent protest, demanding that Carnesale defy Prop 209.
"[5] Following the events of September 11, 2001, Carnesale initiated a seminar program named for the university's motto, Fiat Lux, which means "Let there be light.
[24] As chancellor, Carnesale oversaw the completion of a $3.1 billion fundraising campaign—at the time the most ambitious in the history of higher education.
In 2013, a new building in the residential portion of the UCLA campus was named Robin and Albert Carnesale Commons in honor of the chancellor emeritus and his wife.
[26] From 1969 to 1972 Carnesale served as chief of the Defensive Weapons Systems Division, Science and Technology Bureau of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in Washington, D.C.[8] From 1970 to 1972, he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) with the Soviet Union -- a major step towards controlling nuclear weapons.
This 66-nation multilateral meeting was intended to investigate and ultimately make recommendations regarding the relationships between civilian and military uses of nuclear energy and materials.
"[29] In 1995, President Clinton appointed Carnesale to the Scientific and Policy Advisory Committee of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.
[30] In 2009, Carnesale chaired a National Academies committee overseeing efforts to outline "America's Climate Choices" at the request of Congress.