News

For Immediate Release

Dec. 11, 2001

Media Contact: Jack Chappell

jack.chappell@ucr.edu

(909) 787-5185

President Bush Announces His Intention to Nominate UCR Chancellor

Raymond L. Orbach Director of Department of Energy Office of Science

President George W. Bush announced his intention Tuesday, Dec. 11, to nominate Raymond L. Orbach, chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, as the new director of the Department of Energy Office of Science.

Orbach will remain at UCR pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Upon confirmation, he will leave the campus he has headed for nine and a half years.

The Office of Science is an agency within the Department of Energy (DOE) exercising oversight of national laboratories, funding billions of dollars in university research, and helping to set the U.S. scientific agenda. As director, Orbach will manage an organization that is the third largest federal sponsor of basic research in the United States and is viewed as one of the premier science organizations in the world.

The office’s fiscal year 2001 budget of $3.2 billion funds programs in high energy and nuclear physics, basic energy sciences, magnetic fusion energy, biological and environmental research, and computational science. Formerly known as the Office of Energy Research, the office also provides management oversight of the Chicago and Oak Ridge Operations Offices, the Berkeley and Stanford Site Offices, and the ten DOE non-weapons laboratories.

Orbach, 67, is a theoretical physicist who in addition his administrative leadership maintains an active research program and laboratory at UCR. Known for hands-on involvement at all levels of the campus operation, he also teaches graduate and undergraduate students. He will replace interim director James F. Decker, also a physicist, who was named to the interim position upon the inauguration of President Bush on Jan. 20, 2001. Decker has been with the Office of Science since 1985.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to help my country achieve at the highest scientific levels. I am gratified by President Bush’s trust and I am committed with all of my heart to his aggressive program furthering the nation’s scientific endeavors,” Orbach said.

“UCR and the Riverside region are wonderful places, places of exceptional diversity and social richness, of great academic quality and opportunity, and of genuine warmth. My wife Eva and I will cherish the time we have spent in Riverside and the lasting friendships we have developed there and in the surrounding communities,” he said.

During the confirmation period, Orbach will continue as chancellor, although much of the day-to-day operations will be vested with Executive Vice Chancellor David H. Warren, second in command at the campus. Upon Orbach’s confirmation, UC President Richard C. Atkinson will appoint Warren acting chancellor to serve until a permanent chancellor is seated. In anticipation of the campus leadership change, the UC President’s Office has begun a national search for a successor.

“Ray Orbach is absolutely the best person for this job. It is a perfect fit for his leadership talent and scientific knowledge,” said Atkinson.

“The campus he has headed for nearly 10 years is strong. It is a dynamic and rising star not just within the UC system, but within American higher education. UCR has come a long way under his leadership, building upon a tradition of academic and research excellence. His appointment is testament to its vigor and quality,” Atkinson said.

Orbach began at UCR on April 20, 1992 following the death of Chancellor Rosemary S. J. Schraer. He had been appointed chancellor-designate by then-UC President David Gardner and the Board of Regents on March 20, 1992 and was to take the UCR post following Dr. Schraer’s announced retirement on June 30, 1992. He took the helm of a campus shocked and saddened by the death of its popular leader.

Under Orbach’s leadership, UCR has grown from 8,805 students to more than 14,400 currently and the faculty has grown substantially. The campus, embarked on a building boom to accommodate students and faculty, added one million square feet of new teaching, research and office space with a value of $250 million. An additional $100 million in laboratory and housing construction is underway.

An internationally recognized scientist and scholar, Orbach had come to UCR from UCLA where he had served for 10 years as provost of the 24,000-student College of Letters and Science. He joined the University of California in 1963 as an associate professor and became a full professor three years later. Prior to UCLA, he was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University from 1960 to 1961 and an assistant professor of applied physics at Harvard University from 1961 to 1963.

Orbach holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cal Tech in physics and a PhD. in physics from UC Berkeley where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

He serves as a member of 20 scientific, professional or civic boards. He is the author of more than 240 articles in scientific publications.

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