Gerald Johnson, Irving Krick and Jerome Namias to help form Panel Discussion for UCSD Growth Conference

May 26, 1963

A developer of the program to use nuclear explosives for peaceful, useful purposes., an exponent of weather control, and the chief of the U. S. Weather Bureau's Extended Forecast Branch will share one platform at the University of California, San Diego, conference, "The Impact of Science," June 13-14.

In one of six significant discussions to be held at the session, the three will probe the role of the scientist in controlling our natural environment, in a panel to be held in UCSD's Sumner Auditorium at 10:00 a.m., June 14.

The conference is one of seven sponsored by the University of California this year to mark the occasion of California's becoming the largest state in population.

Gerald Johnson, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy will discuss "Project Plowshare: Engineering with Atomic Energy."

He will be joined on the panel by Irving Krick, President of the Water Resources Development Corporation of Denver, and Jerome Namias, who has headed the U. S. Weather Bureau's Extended Forecast Branch since 1941. Dr. Krick's topic will be "Doing Something About the Weather." Namias will discuss "Can Man Control ?" It was under Dr. Johnson's guidance that Project Plowshare was established for exploring the possibility of using nuclear explosives for industrial and scientific purposes. During his assignment as Test Division Leader at the University of California's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, the Test Division developed plans for and conducted the first underground nuclear explosion in 1957- It was this test which demonstrated that underground weapons testing could be accomplished with radioactive fallout eliminated.

Dr. Johnson's experience in nuclear field testing includes participation in Operations Teapot, Redwing, Plumbbob and Hardtack II. During these tests he held the positions of Head of the Experimental Measurements Team; Task Group Director of the Livermore Laboratory Field Experiments; and Test Director for all testing.

Since he received an M.A. degree in from the California Institute of Technology in 1933, weather has been Dr. Krick's business. He was chairman of the Department of Meteorology at Cal Tech from 1933-48, and has developed and applied long range to industry and the military since 1934.

Application of Dr. Krick's weather control research and development has been made in more than 25 states and many foreign countries. He has established weather modification projects in Spain, France, Italy, Israel, Algeria, Belgian Congo, Mexico and San Salvador.

Mr. Namias has been cited many times for his meteorological research. An award for extraordinary scientific accomplishment was presented him by the American Meterological Society in 1955. For his weather forecasts in connection with the invasion of North Africa in 1943, he was given a Navy citation, and he received a Rockefeller Public Service Award in 1955.

Persons desiring more information about the conference should write: Growth Conference Committee, University of California, San Diego, P. O. Box 109, , California.