Remembering the Laboratory's First Director

摘要

Institutions are merely the lengthy shadows of great men." Herb York would surely have given one of his loud and prolonged laughs to hear the Laboratory described as his shadow. But this quotation, adapted from a Thomas Carlyle remark on history, is more than appropriate. In a career notable for the founding role Herb played in several important institutions (including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Research and Engineering, University of California at San Diego, and Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation), Livermore was the first. Not only did his six years (1952-1958) as the founding director of the Laboratory set its character and direction for the subsequent decades, but that period also tested and honed Herb's abilities as a thinker and a leader. It began the broadening of his perspective from that of a scientist and technologist to encompass an understanding of the potential of and problems in applying technology for military advantage and, in turn, the utility and limitations of using military capability in support of national security.