Jerome B. Wiesner

Jerome Bert Wiesnerwiki(deceased)

"Jerome Bert Wiesner, president emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former science adviser to President John F. Kennedy, and a leader for decades in shaping the nation's science and technology policies, died late Friday night (October 21,[1994]) at his home in Watertown of heart failure. He was 79 years old...

"A leading voice for decades in international efforts to control and limit nuclear arms, he was a key figure in the Kennedy administration in the establishment of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, in achieving a partial nuclear test ban treaty, and in the successful effort to restrict the deployment of antiballistic missile systems.

"At MIT, as dean of science, provost, and ultimately as president from 1971 to 1980, Dr. Wiesner played a major role as the Institute expanded and strengthened its teaching and research programs in the health sciences, social sciences, humanities and the creative arts...

"In February 1993, he collaborated with two other MIT scientists with long experience in the study of weapons and military policy-Institute Professor Philip Morrison and Dr. Kosta Tsipis-in calling for deep cuts in US military procurement and expenditures. They published their proposals in a booklet, "Beyond The Looking Glass: The United States Military in 2000 and Later."...

"It was at the University of Michigan that he met a fellow mathematics major, Laya Wainger of Johnstown, PA. They were married in 1940. That same year he was appointed chief engineer for the Acoustical and Record Laboratory of the Library of Congress. There, under a Carnegie Corporation grant, he assisted in developing recording facilities and equipment and traveled through the South and Southwest with the noted folklorist Alan Lomax, recording the folk music of the regions for the Library of Congress Archives...

"He became a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee in 1957 during the Eisenhower Administration. He also served as the technical director of the Gaither Panel, a study of civilian defense undertaken by the White House. In 1958 he served as staff director of the US delegation to the Geneva Conference for the Prevention of Surprise Attack. Also in 1958, Dr. Wiesner became associated with the Pugwash Group, scientists whose activities have been directed toward improving communications and relations between intellectual leaders in Communist bloc nations and those of the Western world...

"In addition to his responsibilities as president of MIT, Dr. Wiesner helped found the Massachusetts Science and Technology Foundation Board in 1970 and served as a member from 1970 to 1977...

"In addition to his service on the MIT Corporation, Dr. Wiesner was on the board of trustees of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Board of Governors of The Institute of Science, the advisory committee of the Wellman Laboratory for research in photobiology, the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, and the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government. In addition he served on the boards of the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity, Consultants for Management Decisions, Inc., The Faxon Company, Magnascreen, and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation...

"Dr. Wiesner was the author of, Where Science and Politics Meet (New York, McGraw Hill, 1961) and was co-author with Harvard Professor Abram Chayes of ABM: An Evaluation of the Decision to Deploy an Antiballistic Missile System (New York, Harper and Row, 1969)...

"Dr. Wiesner is survived by his widow, Laya W. Wiesner, of Watertown, and their four children: Stephen J. Wiesner, of Mitzpeh Ramon, Israel; Zachary K. Wiesner of Watertown; Dr. Elizabeth A. Wiesner of Branford, CT, and Joshua A. Wiesner of Cambridge."


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