Darling Named UC Interim Vice President for Laboratory Management

University of California President Richard C. Atkinson today (Wednesday) named longtime UC senior administrator Bruce B. Darling as interim vice president for laboratory management. Darling, who currently serves as systemwide senior vice president for university affairs, will take on the additional responsibilities of overseeing the university’s administration of the national laboratories UC manages for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

“By making this appointment of Bruce Darling, one of my oldest and closest associates, I am sending a very clear signal that the University of California’s management of the national laboratories is among my highest priorities,” said Atkinson. “Bruce has been intimately involved in getting to the bottom of recent allegations surrounding business practices at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has worked closely with the Department of Energy and the NNSA on these matters, and has proved again and again that he is a trusted and effective manager and problem solver on a wide range of university issues. All these are the attributes I need in the vice president position at this critical time.”

Darling most recently chaired a Special Review Team of senior UC officials charged with making an independent review of the business practices and controls in place at Los Alamos. The team visited the laboratory in November and made recommendations at that time to improve the laboratory’s business practices, and then again in December to understand the facts surrounding various allegations related to the dismissal of two laboratory investigators.

Darling, 50, replaces John P. McTague, whose retirement, announced Nov. 8, 2002, was effective Jan. 6, 2003. McTague is returning to UC Santa Barbara, where he is professor of materials.

The announcement comes less than a week after the University of California unveiled a sweeping set of management changes at Los Alamos, including the resignations of Director John C. Browne and Principal Deputy Director Joseph Salgado. Retired Vice Admiral George P. “Pete” Nanos, the former commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command and of the Navy’s strategic nuclear program, has been named interim director. Nanos had been principal deputy associate director for Los Alamos’ Threat Reduction Directorate.

Additionally, the university implemented new controls on laboratory administrative, business and audit operations, and announced that an oversight board will soon be appointed to guide the interim director on general laboratory management issues.

Meanwhile, Atkinson announced that a nationwide search will be conducted for a permanent vice president for laboratory management. He will soon name members of a search committee.

Darling joined UC in 1980 after six years at the National Science Foundation. When Atkinson was chancellor at UC San Diego, he named Darling a special assistant and then vice chancellor. Darling was appointed systemwide vice president for university and external relations in 1996 and promoted to senior vice president for university affairs in May 2002 with the added responsibility for integrating internal and external activities across all areas of the University of California. His responsibilities also include the acquisition of UC’s state-funded operating and capital budgets; the university’s governmental relations programs in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.; communications with the news media and public; and alumni and fundraising.

Darling has received several scholastic and professional honors and is active in numerous professional and civic activities. He serves on the boards of the California Council on Science and Technology and Californians for Higher Education and the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara.

Darling graduated summa cum laude from UCLA in 1974. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese, having spent much of his childhood in South America and the Caribbean.