JASON is an independent group of elite scientists which advises the
United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
on matters of science and technology, mostly of a sensitive nature. The group was created in the aftermath of the
Sputnik
Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...
launch as a way to reinvigorate the idea of having the nation's preeminent scientists help the government with defense problems, similar to the way that scientists helped in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
but with a new and younger generation. It was established in 1960 and has somewhere between 30 and 60 members. Its work first gained public notoriety as the source of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
's McNamara Line electronic barrier. Although most of its research is military-focused, JASON also produced early work on the science of
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and
acid rain
Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...
. Current unclassified research interests include
health informatics
Health informatics is the field of science and engineering that aims at developing methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data, which can come from different sources and modalities, such as electronic hea ...
,
cyberwarfare
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...
, and
renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
.
Activities
For administrative purposes, JASON's activities are run through the
MITRE
The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...
Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation in
McLean, Virginia
McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxim ...
, which operates
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers
Federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) are public-private partnerships that conduct research and development for the United States Government. Under Federal Acquisition Regulationbr>§ 35.017 FFRDCs are operated by unive ...
(FFRDCs) for the federal government. The
Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to:
Current departments of defence
* Department of Defence (Australia)
* Department of National Defence (Canada)
* Department of Defence (Ireland)
* Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
ended its contract with MITRE in April 2019, effectively cutting ties with JASON. However, due to the efforts of the Department of Energy as well as others within the government, to include an act of Congress, the contract was reinstated and is now again with the Department of Defense.
JASON typically performs most of its work during an annual summer study. Its sponsors include the Department of Defense, the
Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rel ...
, and the
U.S. Intelligence Community
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Most of the resulting JASON reports are classified.
The name "JASON" is sometimes explained as an acronym, standing either for "July August September October November", the months in which the group would typically meet; or, tongue in cheek, for "Junior Achiever, Somewhat Older Now". However, neither explanation is correct; in fact, the name is not an acronym at all. It is a reference to
Jason
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...
, a character from
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
. The wife of one of the founders (Mildred Goldberger) thought the name given by the defense department, Project Sunrise, was unimaginative and suggested the group be named for a hero and his search.
JASON studies have included a now-mothballed system for communicating with submarines using extremely long radio waves (
Project Seafarer
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
,
Project Sanguine
Project Sanguine was a U.S. Navy project, proposed in 1968 for communication with submerged submarines using extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves. The originally proposed system, hardened to survive a nuclear attack, would have required a ...
), an astronomical technique for overcoming the atmosphere's distortion (
adaptive optics
Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of incoming wavefront distortions by deforming a mirror in order to compensate for the distortion. It is used in astronomical tele ...
), the many problems of missile defense, technologies for verifying compliance with treaties banning nuclear tests, a 1979 report describing CO2-driven
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, and the McNamara Line's electronic barrier, a system of computer-linked sensors developed during the Vietnam War which became the precursor to the modern electronic battlefield.
Among the more recent activities was a non-consensus-commensurate (in other words, providing a view alternative to the prevailing one in the federal executive department which commissioned the report), and now declassified, report to the
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
dismissing sounds associated with the Havana Syndrome cases as caused by crickets as opposed to microwave weapons. This was followed by a 2021 report, in which JASON again found no compelling evidence that the anomalous health incidents (AHI) were caused by a deliberate attack using a radio-frequency or any other directed energy weapon.
Membership
JASON members, known informally as "Jasons," include physicists, biologists, chemists, oceanographers, mathematicians, and computer scientists, predominated by
theoretical physicists
The following is a partial list of notable theoretical physicists. Arranged by century of birth, then century of death, then year of birth, then year of death, then alphabetically by surname. For explanation of symbols, see Notes at end of this ar ...
. They are selected by current members, and, over the years, have included eleven
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
laureates and several dozen members of the
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
. All members have a wide range of
security clearance
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is ...
s that allow them to do their work.
The founders of JASON include John Wheeler and
Charles H. Townes
Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...
. Other early members included
Murray Gell-Mann
Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. He was the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Theoretical ...
,
S. Courtenay Wright
S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet.
S may also refer to:
History
* an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics
* Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...
,
Robert Gomer
Robert Gomer (24 March 1924, in Vienna, Austria – 12 December 2016) was an Austrian scientist known for his research on field electron emission and field ionization, and his role as an adviser to the United States government.
He was educated a ...
,
Walter Munk
Walter Heinrich Munk (October 19, 1917 – February 8, 2019) was an American physical oceanographer. He was one of the first scientists to bring statistical methods to the analysis of oceanographic data. His work won awards including the Nation ...
Hans Bethe
Hans Albrecht Bethe (; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American theoretical physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics, and solid-state physics, and who won the 1967 Nobel Prize ...
Fredrik Zachariasen
Fredrik "Fred" Zachariasen (1931–1999) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his collaborative work with Murray Gell-Mann, Sidney Drell, and others.
Early life and education
Fredrik Zachariasen was born in 1931 in Chicago, Illinois. ...
Sam Treiman
Sam Bard Treiman (; May 27, 1925 – November 30, 1999) was an American theoretical physicist who produced research in the fields of cosmic rays, quantum physics, plasma physics, and gravity physics. He made contributions to the understanding of ...
,
Conrad Longmire
Conrad Lee Longmire (August 23, 1921 – March 22, 2010) was an American theoretical physicist who was best known as the discoverer of the mechanism behind high-altitude electromagnetic pulse.
In 1961, Longmire was awarded the Ernest Orlando Law ...
,
Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interactio ...
,
Roger Dashen
Roger Frederick Dashen (May 5, 1938 in Grand Junction, Colorado – May 25, 1995 in La Jolla) was an American theoretical physicist who studied particle physics and quantum field theory.
Dashen studied physics at the Harvard University (where he ...
, and
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum m ...
Murray Gell-Mann
Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. He was the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Theoretical ...
,
Luis Walter Alvarez
Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for his discovery of resonance states in particle physics using the h ...
,
Henry Way Kendall
Henry Way Kendall (December 9, 1926 – February 15, 1999) was an American particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 jointly with Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor "for their pioneering investigations concerning dee ...
, and
Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interactio ...
.
Chairs
In chronological order:
*
Marvin Leonard Goldberger
Marvin Leonard "Murph" Goldberger (October 22, 1922 – November 26, 2014) was an American theoretical physicist and former president of the California Institute of Technology.
Biography
Goldberger was born in Chicago, Illinois. He went on to re ...
(1960–1966)
*
Harold Lewis
Harold ("Hal") Warren Lewis (born October 1, 1923 at the Center for History of Physics,
(1966–1973)
*
Kenneth M. Watson
Kenneth Marshall Watson (September 7, 1921 – August 18, 2023) was an American theoretical physicist and physical oceanographer.
Life and career
Watson graduated in 1943 with BS in electrical engineering from Iowa State College. From 1943 to 19 ...
Richard Garwin
Richard Lawrence Garwin (born April 19, 1928) is an American physicist, best known as the author of the first hydrogen bomb design.
In 1978, Garwin was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributing to the application ...
William Happer
William Happer (born July 27, 1939) is an American physicist who has specialized in the study of atomic physics, optics and spectroscopy. He is the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Princeton University, and a long-term memb ...
(1987–1990)
*
Curtis Callan
Curtis Gove Callan Jr. (born October 11, 1942) is an American theoretical physicist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He has conducted research in gauge theory, string theory, inst ...
Steven Koonin
Steven Elliot Koonin (born December 12, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist and former director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University. He is also a professor in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at ...
*
Roy Schwitters
Roy F. Schwitters, (June 20, 1944 – January 10, 2023) was an American physicist who was professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin. He was formerly a professor of physics at Harvard and Stanford, as well as director of the Supe ...
(2005–2011)
*
Gerald Joyce
Gerald Francis "Jerry" Joyce (born 1956) is a senior vice president and chief science officer at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and was previously the director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. He is best known ...
Ellen D. Williams
Ellen D. Williams is an American theatre and TV actress.
Life and career
Williams graduated with a bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts from California State University, Long Beach.
In 2011, Williams was cast and is best known for her role in ' ...
(2019–present)
Early history
In 1958, a military-issues physics summer study program named Project 137 was launched by physicists
John Archibald Wheeler
John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911April 13, 2008) was an American theoretical physicist. He was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr in e ...
,
Eugene Wigner
Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his con ...
, and
Oskar Morgenstern
Oskar Morgenstern (January 24, 1902 – July 26, 1977) was an Austrian-American economist. In collaboration with mathematician John von Neumann, he founded the mathematical field of game theory as applied to the social sciences and strategic decis ...
. Participants included Murph Goldberger,
Kenneth M. Watson
Kenneth Marshall Watson (September 7, 1921 – August 18, 2023) was an American theoretical physicist and physical oceanographer.
Life and career
Watson graduated in 1943 with BS in electrical engineering from Iowa State College. From 1943 to 19 ...
Keith Brueckner
Keith Allen Brueckner (March 19, 1924 – September 19, 2014) was an American theoretical physicist who made important contributions in several areas of physics, including many-body theory in condensed matter physics, and laser fusion.
Biography
...
.
Out of that program came the idea of a permanent institution for advanced scientific research, a proposed National Defense Institute, on behalf of the Department of Defense. Wheeler was offered such a position by
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Adv ...
's
Herb York
Herbert Frank York (24 November 1921 – 19 May 2009) was an American nuclear physicist of Mohawk nation, Mohawk origin.http://www.edge.org/conversation/nsa-the-decision-problem. The Decision Problem He held numerous research and administrat ...
but turned it down, having put in the effort to establish Project 137. Murph Goldberger also turned down the request.
However, in December 1959
Marvin Stern Marvin may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Geography
;In the United States
* Marvyn, Alabama, also spelled Marvin, an unincorporated community
* Marvin, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Marvin, North Carolina, a village
* Marvin, South Dakota, a town ...
,
Charles H. Townes
Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...
,
Keith Brueckner
Keith Allen Brueckner (March 19, 1924 – September 19, 2014) was an American theoretical physicist who made important contributions in several areas of physics, including many-body theory in condensed matter physics, and laser fusion.
Biography
...
,
Kenneth M. Watson
Kenneth Marshall Watson (September 7, 1921 – August 18, 2023) was an American theoretical physicist and physical oceanographer.
Life and career
Watson graduated in 1943 with BS in electrical engineering from Iowa State College. From 1943 to 19 ...
, and
Marvin Leonard Goldberger
Marvin Leonard "Murph" Goldberger (October 22, 1922 – November 26, 2014) was an American theoretical physicist and former president of the California Institute of Technology.
Biography
Goldberger was born in Chicago, Illinois. He went on to re ...
met in Los Alamos where several of them had been working on nuclear-rocket research and launched JASON as an ongoing summer study program, with financial and administrative support supplied by the
Institute for Defense Analyses
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is an American non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) – the Systems and Analyses Center (SAC), the Science and Technology Policy Institute ...
. In the early 1960s, JASON had about 20 members. By the end of the decade it had grown to over 40 members, with close ties to the
President's Science Advisory Committee
The President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) was created on November 21, 1957, by President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a direct response to the Soviet launching of the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites. PSAC was an upgrade ...
. In the early 1970s the backing institution for JASON was changed from IDA to
SRI
Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific.
The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanes ...
.
Vietnam War
The
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
had a significant effect on JASON's membership and research focus. A major initiative of JASON became the
McNamara Line
The McNamara Line, an operational strategy employed by the United States in 1966–1968 during the Vietnam War, aimed to prevent infiltration of South Vietnam by NVA forces from North Vietnam and Laos. Physically, the McNamara Line ran across So ...
electronic barrier, promoted by the hawks. (According to Freeman Dyson, a member of JASON, this research was actually not carried out by JASON, but by a group called JASON EAST). By around 1966, the team had become strongly divided along political and ethical lines. In March 1967, Freeman Dyson, Robert Gomer, Steven Weinberg, and S. Courtenay Wright produced a report, approved by Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the Lis ...
and titled "Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Southeast Asia." Declassified in 2002 through a
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request:
* Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act
* ...
action brought by the Nautilus Institute, the paper predicted catastrophic consequences for U.S. global interests as well as for the people and environment of
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
of a
tactical nuclear weapons
A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territo ...
strike in the area. Going into great detail, the paper strongly contradicted game-scenario research from the
RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...
and other groups that was optimistic about a nuclear option. Co-author Wright later stated that the report's main finding was that "employment of nuclear weapons by the US would be of little use against a widely distributed opponent but disaster if copied by the opponent." In a nuclear counterstrike against U.S. troops, the report concluded that, in the worst-case, "the U.S. fighting capability in Vietnam would be essentially annihilated." Co-author Weinberg showed the political point of view of the writers and the increasing political division:
I have to admit that its conclusions were pretty much what we expected from the beginning, and if I had not expected to reach these conclusions then, for the ethical reasons that we left out of the report I would not have helped to write it.
Seymour Deitchman, a national security consultant who served with the IDA for over 28 years, said, "To the extent of my personal knowledge, the talk of using nuclear weapons in that war stopped after the JASON report on the subject."
Gordon J. F. MacDonald Gordon James Fraser MacDonald (July 30, 1929 – May 14, 2002) was an American geophysicist and environmental scientist, best known for his principled skepticism regarding continental drift (now called plate tectonics), involvement in the developmen ...
, executive vice president of IDA at the time, reflected on the JASON report in 1998. MacDonald said that the "grim picture" painted in the report had a major effect on both Johnson and McNamara. It was central to McNamara's differences with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were sanguine about the nuclear option; this ultimately led to McNamara's resignation. RAND experts also conceded the report's credibility.
There arose internal conflict between hawkish JASON members such as
William Happer
William Happer (born July 27, 1939) is an American physicist who has specialized in the study of atomic physics, optics and spectroscopy. He is the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Princeton University, and a long-term memb ...
,
Edward Teller
Edward Teller ( hu, Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care fo ...
Sid Drell
Sidney David Drell (September 13, 1926 – December 21, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist and arms control expert.
At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and senior fello ...
, and
Richard Garwin
Richard Lawrence Garwin (born April 19, 1928) is an American physicist, best known as the author of the first hydrogen bomb design.
In 1978, Garwin was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributing to the application ...
. Public attention to JASON's involvement in the Vietnam War led to public criticism and attacks, even against JASON members who were not hawks; for example, MacDonald's garage was burned down and Richard Garwin was called a "baby killer."
Around this time, some members critical of the war like
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum m ...
left, and others directed JASON research into unclassified, non-military work on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy on problems like
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and
acid rain
Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...
.
Recent history
In 2002, DARPA decided to cut its ties with JASON. DARPA had not only been one of JASON's primary sponsors, it was also the channel through which JASON received funding from other sponsors. DARPA's decision came after JASON's refusal to allow DARPA to select three new JASON members. Since JASON's inception, new members have always been selected by its existing members. After much negotiation and letter-writing—including a letter by
Congressman
A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
Rush Holt of New Jersey—funding was subsequently secured from an office higher in the defense hierarchy, the office of the Director, Defense Research & Engineering, name changed to Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research & Engineering) (ASD (R&E)) in 2011.
In 2009, JASON issued its classified recommendations on the future of the United States nuclear arsenal, finding that a new generation of nuclear weapons was unnecessary. In 2010, JASON issued recommendations for the Department of Defense to support cyber-security research. In 2011, the panel published a public analysis of and recommendations for international
greenhouse gas monitoring
Greenhouse gas monitoring is the direct measurement of greenhouse gas emissions and levels. There are several different methods of measuring carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, including infrared analyzing and manometry. Methane an ...
by the United States government. In 2014, the panel published results of its 2013 summer-study focus on
health information exchange
Health information exchange (HIE) is the mobilization of health care information electronically across organizations within a region, community or hospital system. Participants in data exchange are called in the aggregate Health Information Netw ...
.
In April 2019, Jason lost its contract with the Department of Defense. On 28 March, Representative
Jim Cooper
James Hayes Shofner Cooper (born June 19, 1954) is an American lawyer, businessman, professor, and politician who served as the U.S. representative for (based in Nashville and containing parts of Davidson, Cheatham, and Dickson Counties) from ...
(D–TN), who chairs the strategic forces subcommittee of the
House Armed Services Committee
The U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, commonly known as the House Armed Services Committee or HASC, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is responsible for funding and oversight of the Department of Defe ...
McLean, Virginia
McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxim ...
, that manages the Jason contract, received a letter from the Department of Defense ordering it to close up shop by 30 April.Update: Legislator asks Pentagon to restore contract for storied Jason science advisory group Jeffrey Mervis, Ann Finkbeiner;
Science (magazine)
''Science'', also widely referred to as ''Science Magazine'', is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals.
It was first published in 1880, ...
, 2019-04-11Pentagon’s Jason group is not worth mourning Jill Aitoro; DefenseNews, 2019-04-13 However, on 25 April 2019 the
National Nuclear Security Administration
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and e ...
in the Department of Energy offered the group an 8-month contract that would continue to employ JASON.
Research
About half of JASON's work is classified, ranging from recommendations on the United States nuclear arsenal and missile defense, to electronic surveillance and cyber-security.
Much of JASON's public work has involved energy and the environment, including Gordon MacDonald's project to model climate change that soon convinced him that fossil-fuel burning would lead to dangerous global warming that would outstrip any industrial cooling effects. For decades, MacDonald was a prominent scientific advocate for action on climate change. Current JASON energy research has included reports on advanced biofuel production and how to reduce the Department of Defense's carbon footprint for strategic and environmental reasons. However, several other members of JASON, including past chairs Nierenberg, Happer, and Koonin, have cast doubt on climate science and policies that would limit the use of fossil fuels.
JASON studies include:
Fundamental Research Security (December 2009; JSR 19–21)
Artificial Intelligence in Health and Healthcare (December 2017, JSR-17-Task-002)
Data for Individual Health (November 2014, JSR-14-TASK-007)
A Robust Health Data Infrastructure (April 2014, JSR-13-700)
Compressive Sensing for DoD Sensor Systems (November 2012, JSR-12-104)
Impacts of Severe Space Weather on the Electric Grid (November 2011, JSR-11-320)
The $100 Genome: Implications for the DoD (November 2010, JSR-10-100)
Science of Cyber-Security (November 2010, JSR-10-102)
* High Frequency Gravitational Waves, (October 2008; JSR-08-506)
* Human Performance, (March 2008; JSR-07-625)
* Wind Farms and Radar, (January 2008; JSR-08-125)
* Navy Ship Underwater Shock Prediction and Testing Capability Study, (October 2007; JSR-07-200)
* Reliable Replacement Warhead Executive Summary, (September 2007; JSR-07-336E)
* Pit Lifetime, (January 2007; JSR-06-335)
* DAHRT, (October 2006; JSR-06-330)
* Engineering Microorganisms for Energy Production, (June 2006; JSR-05-300)
* Reducing DoD Fossil-Fuel Dependence, (September 2006; JSR-06-135)
* NIF Ignition (June 2005; JSR-05-340)
* Tactical Infrasound (May 2005; JSR-03-520)
* Quantifications of Margins and Uncertainties, (March 2005; JSR-04-330)
* High Performance Biocomputation (March 2005; JSR-04-300)
* Sensors to Support the Soldier (Feb. 2005; JSR-04-210)
* Horizontal Integration: Broader Access Models for Realizing Information Dominance (December 2004; JSR-04-312)
* Active Sonar Waveform, (June 2004; JSR-03-200)
* The Computational Challenges of Medical Imaging, (February 2004; JSR-03-300)
* Requirements for ASCI, (October 2003; JSR-03-330)
* Portable Energy for the Dismounted Soldier, (June 2003; JSR-02-135)
* Turbulent Boundary Layer Drag Reduction, (May 2003; JSR-01-135)
* High Power Lasers, (April 2003; JSR-02-224)
* Biodetection Architectures, (February 2003; JSR-02-330)
* Opportunities at the Intersection of Nanoscience, Biology and Computation, (November 2002; JSR-02-300)
* Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, (April 2002; JSR-01-315)
* Non-GPS Methods of Geolocation, (January 2002; JSR-00-105)
* Radiological Weapons, (2002; JSR-02-340)
* Biofutures, (June 2001; JSR-00-130)
* Spintronics, (February 2001; JSR-99-115)
Imaging Infrared Detectors II (October 2000, JSR-97-600)
* Advantage of Base-Line Redundancy in Sparse Apertures, (September 2000; JSR-2000-551)
* Space Infrastructure for 2020, (September 2000; JSR-99-125)
* Imaging Infrared Detectors II, (June 2000; JSR-97-500)
* Molecular Electronics: Interfacing the Nano- and Micro-Worlds, (May 2000; JSR-99-120)
* Power Sources for Ultra Low Power Electronics, (June 2000; JSR-98-130)
* 100 LBS TO Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Small-Payload Launch Options, (January 2000; JSR-98-140)
* Data Mining and the Human Genome (January 2000; JSR-99-310)
* Primary Performance Margins (December 1999; JSR-99-305) (unclassified introduction)
* System-Level Flight Tests, (December 1999; JSR-98-310)
* Remanufacture (of Nuclear Weapons), (October 1999; JSR-99-300)
* Army Battlefield Communications (September 1999; JSR-96-605)
* Characterization of Underground Facilities (April 1999; JSR-97-155)
* Non-destructive Evaluation and Self-Monitoring Materials (April 1999; JSR-98-145)
* Electro Thermal Chemical Gun Technology Study (March 1999; JSR-98-600)
* Small Unit Operations (June 1998; JSR-97-142)
* Signatures of Aging Revisited (March 1998; JSR-98-320)
* Signatures of Aging
f nuclear weapons
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
(January 1998; JSR-97-320)
* Counterproliferation (January 1998; JSR-94-140)
* High Energy Density Explosives (October 1997; JSR-97-110)
*
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...
(October 1997; JSR-97-315)
* Small Scale Propulsion: Fly on the Wall, Cockroach in the Corner, Rat in the Basement, Bird in the Sky (September 1997; JSR-97-135)
* Subcritical Experiments (March 1997; JSR-97-300)
* New Technological Approaches to Humanitarian Demining, November 1996; JSR-96-115)
*
Quantum Computing
Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...
(July 1996; JSR-95-115)
* Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Review (March 1996; JSR-96-300)
* DNA Computing (October 1995; JSR-95-116)
* JASON Nuclear Testing Study: Summary and Conclusions, August 1995; JSR-95-320)
* Accelerator production of tritium - 1995 review (June 1995; JSR-95-310)
* Accelerator based conversion of plutonium (March 1995; JSR-94-310)
* Microsurveillance of the Urban Battlefield (February 1995; JSR-95-125)
* JASON Nuclear Testing Study: Summary and Conclusions (1995; JSR-95-320)
* Jason Final Report, January 1995; JSR-94-105)
* LIDAR (September 1994; JSR-93-310)
* Science based stockpile stewardship (November 1994; JSR-94-345)
* Counter proliferation /draft/ (August 1994; JSR-94-140)
* MTPE /draft/ (August 1994; JSR-94-750)
*
ARM
In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...
/draft/ (July 1994; JSR-94-300)
* greenhouse mitigation (May 1994; JSR-93-340)
* Underwater explosions ONR/DNA/NAVSEA /draft/ (January 1994; JSR-94-220)
* Clouds and radiationa premier ic(January 1993; JSR-90-307)
* Verification of dismantlement of nuclear warheads and controls on nuclear materials (January 1993; JSR-92-331)
* Small satellites and RPVs (January 1993; JSR-91-197)
* SCHAMMP (Dec 1992; JSR-91-310)
* JASON Global Grid Study (July 1992; JSR-92-100)
* ARM review 1991 /draft/ (September 30, 1991; JSR-91-300)
* Small satellite and RPAs in global change research /draft/ (August 1991; JSR-91-330-12)
* Small Satellites (August 3, 1991; JSR-91-330-10)
* ARM /draft/ (July 1991; JSR-91-300)
* Verification Technology: Unclassified Version (October 1990; JSR-89-100A)
* High gain arrays /draft/ (July 1990; JSR-90-210)
* Detecting the greenhouse signal (May 1990; JSR-89-330)
* JASON Review of Brilliant Pebbles, Vol. I, Executive Summary (September 1989; JSR-89-900)
* Neutrino Detection Primer (March 1988; JSR-84-105)
* Airships (1988; JSR-88-230)
* Occulation study summary (February 1987; JSR-86-108)
* JASON study on OTHB radars (1987; JSR-87-801)
* Development stability of strategic defenses (October 1986; JSR-85-926)
* Submarine detection: Acoustic contrast versus Acoustic glow (July 1985; JSR-85-108)
* Seismic discrimination (April 1985 ; JSR-84-117)
* SEASAT Report (January 1985; JSR-83-203)
* Multiple scattering effects in radar observations of wakes (August 1984; JSR-84-203B)
*
SEASAT
Seasat was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans and had on board one of the first spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). The mission was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global sa ...
III & IV (August 1984; JSR-84-203)
*
SEASAT
Seasat was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans and had on board one of the first spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). The mission was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global sa ...
Sonic Boom
A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to t ...
* Ann Finkbeiner, ''The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite'', Viking/Penguin, April 6, 2006,
:*
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...
Nuclear Threat Initiative
The Nuclear Threat Initiative, generally referred to as NTI, is a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C. The American foreign policy think tank was founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and describes itself as a "nonprofit ...