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Chu -University of California Alumnus of the Year - Congratulations
Awardees
The Cal Alumni Association will mark the 143rd anniversary of the University of California by honoring the 2011 Alumni Award recipients.
Alumnus of the Year
DR. STEVEN CHU
Ph.D. Physics ‘76 | U.S. Secretary of Energy
To the world, he is a Nobel Prize—winning physicist, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, and a distinguished scientist devoted to finding and developing alternative energy sources and reducing America’s reliance on fossil fuels. To Berkeley, Dr. Steven Chu is the brilliant doctoral and post-doctoral student who went on to lead the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is also a sports enthusiast, a devoted family man, and the Cal Alumni Association’s 2011 Alumnus of the Year.
21 comments:
I feel so much better now about my pay freeze knowing it came from such an illustrious person.
"distinguished scientist devoted to finding and developing alternative energy sources and reducing America’s reliance on fossil fuels"
REALLY????
He did what?
He was "devoted." Which in today's world is apparently as good as actually doing something.
Any university would be proud to have Dr. Chu as an alum. That it is the University of California, here in the Bay Area, should be a point of pride for all of us that have/had UC associations of one sort or another. If you are disappointed by him not being perfect, have some class and let it go for a moment.
Really? Please UC, take him back. He is out of his league as DOE Secretary.
If you are disappointed by him not being perfect, have some class and let it go for a moment.
January 12, 2011 8:19 PM
How about if I stay disappointed for about ten years? Would that be "classy" enough for you? His degree of "imperfection" is mind-boggling given his span of responsibility, which unfortunately for him, goes way past academics. He is a government servant, and can't handle that responsibility.
Let's be fair the Dr. Chu. It's not his fault he was promoted to his level of incompetence.
Some of you are being very hard on Dr. Chu. He has an outstanding record as a scientist. As an administrator, he is a clear cut above his predecessors, both at LBNL and the DOE. He has good judgement about the most pressing problems (i.e. energy), and he is trying hard to do the right thing. Even though he may not win every battle with the DOE bureaucracy or congress, at least the bureaucracy is a little better controlled than under his predecessors.
at least the bureaucracy is a little better controlled than under his predecessors.
January 14, 2011 4:35 PM
Uh, no. It's not about "controlling" the bureaucracy, it's about changing it. If Chu goes along with the Obama nonsense, he is the problem, not part of the solution. He has absolutely no knowledge of or appreciation for the nuclear weapon mission he is in charge of. That fact alone makes him an abject failure. His San Francisco sensibilities make him uniquely unqualified for his position.
How about if I stay disappointed for about ten years? Would that be "classy" enough for you?
Hey, feel free to start another thread on "The manifest ways Secretary Chu has disappointed me." We're all waiting breathlessly.
Hey, feel free to start another thread on "The manifest ways Secretary Chu has disappointed me." We're all waiting breathlessly.
January 14, 2011 8:36 PM
Hey, I'm not feeling disappointed at all. I retired several years ago. I was just thinking Chu might have disappointed those who still work at the labs who won't be getting raises for a couple of years. Me, I'll still get my UC pension COLA, no problem. Sorry you're "breathless." Must hurt some.
Has anyone else noticed how LBNL is going. They recently put out an RFP to find a new site. According to local media LBNL is looking for a 2 million square foot second campus within a 20-minute drive of LBNL that will house some 800 scientists and employees, to be opened in 2015.
"..Some of you are being very hard on Dr. Chu. He has an outstanding record as a scientist. As an administrator, he is a clear cut above his predecessors, both at LBNL and the DOE..."
OK, in the spirit of listening, his scientific record prior to his current position is above that of previous Energy Secretarys. However, it appears that his DOE record to date is not obviously better, the bureaucracy seems the same with or without him; incompetent. Labs were better off under Brown in the 70s, when the incompetence of DOE was shielded. Chu is neutral on weapon's development to maintain staff competence,he has no energy policy to speak of and he instituted the wage freeze without thinking though the consequences, like the dumbest DOE secretary ever, Hazel O'Leary, and for twice as long.
Further, did you know that his loyal LBNL folks got the raises that were frozen to the rest of the complex? Did you know that the wage freeze funds at each of the other labs are not returned to reduce the federal deficit as advertised, but the funds are kept just as a bonus to the labs to be spent elsewhere. Did you know that Chu knows that senior lab management will get bonuses and that both LANL and LLNL LLC will get their full fees over the period of journeyman salary freeze? ...so the only people who get the shaft are the workers that actually accomplish the work; the folks that need th funds the most to make ends meet?
Seems like he wasn't up to his old Laureate standards when he thought up this "cluster orgy". This freeze was his personal initiative.
Please humor me a bit longer, I am pissed, because I think the workers got screwed, while people close to him got a free pass.
Like about 20% of the folks at the labs who are near retirement in TCP-1, I will lose about $4500 this year and another $150 -$200 per month for the rest of my life. And there is nothing I can do about it. Meanwhile, Chu, Miller, Wallace, Gionconda, and the worthless LLC leader are maxed out.
And what have the LLC partners provided? Project Management expertise or tools? None. Leadership? Absent.
There are many ways to skin a cat, and Samurai Steven, acting the a well-educated elitist, taxed the serfs while sparing fawning sycophants nearby.
Not a pretty picture. More like Hazel than Brown.
Perhaps I am still too hard on him?
UCB Class of '76, with a "NO" vote.
Give it to Aaron Rogers and Marshawn Lynch instead. They haven't hurt anybody.
"It's in the same spirit of shared sacrifice that I am implementing a similar freeze on salary and bonus pool increases for site and facility management contractor employees, who run day-to-day operations at certain Department of Energy sites and facilities," Chu wrote in a memo to employees Friday.
Notice how Chu went directly after the "contractor employees who run the day-to-day operations" and said nothing about Senior Management who remain insulated from this directive. How Chu can claim this decision is a "shared sacrifice" while the Senior Management at the Labs continue to get bonuses and raises is an absolute hypocrisy.
Chu has been a huge disappointment. He has sold out the weapon labs and could care less about their future.
Perhaps it is time for some conservative Congressmen who care about our strategic defense to call him up and fire off some tough questions about how he is mis-handling the nuclear weapons side of the DOE portfolio.
The weapon labs are literally falling apart and morale is incredibly low, yet sinking ever lower under the DOE and their "for-profit" LLCs.
Scooby,
you didn't like my post mentioning Chu's cultural ties to Peking as the reason he is the undermining US defense posture?
ah
To whoever said:
"Scooby,
you didn't like my post mentioning Chu's cultural ties to Peking as the reason he is the undermining US defense posture?"
What makes you say that?
The guy forgot which thread he posted on.
His tenure has proven Reagan's statement that the Department of Energy should be abolished. Lead by an esteemed laureate or a middling housewife; $8B per year to no effect.
The true story about Chu is: he's not using contractor pay freeze money as proposed.
Since that money has been allocated to the Labs, Lab directors nationwide asked that he reconsider and give contractor workers their well deserved raises. He refused. In lieu of the raises he issued principles for each Laboratory to reinvest the funds.
Chu is screwing hard working, middle class employees.
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