Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Local leaders are little help

Since 1998, UNLV has been funded by the Department of Energy to the tune of just under $3 million per year, which supported the High Pressure Science and Engineering Center.This center has helped dozens of students complete their degrees and pursue careers and graduate degrees in science at UNLV and elsewhere. They also received exposure to DOE facilities in the hopes of someday working within the department as scientists.

Students who I personally recruited from local Las Vegas high schools have gone to UNLV and then on to Harvard, Princeton and other prestigious universities for graduate degrees. Some of my former students are trained to command nuclear submarines, work for Allegiant airlines as high-level data managers or have worked within the DOE after leaving UNLV. There was a time when the money destined for HiPSEC was the largest source of extramural funding received by UNLV. 

Last year, when we were up for the renewal of our grant, I sought recommendation letters and support from local political leaders. As far as I know, nothing was ever written.No phone calls were made in Washington, D.C.Few “leaders” even had the courtesy to respond to my request.

Some political staff members contacted me after the submission deadline to offer “help” but obviously it didn’t help enough.And this comes at a time when the Department of Energy wants to bury thousands of tons of nuclear waste in nearby Yucca Mountain with little or no benefit or quid pro quo for our state.

I’m deeply disappointed in our local leaders. Instead of seeking to help Nevada’s upcoming generation by improving our public educational institutions and helping them secure funding (which, sadly, is often determined by politics), they are off mudslinging one another and end up having little or no influence in D.C. 

We need to change our political landscape. 

The writer is a physics professor at UNLV.