KNOXVILLE — Peter V. Zarubin, scientific adviser to the director of the high-energy laser design bureau — “Granat” — in Moscow, will discuss recently declassified information on the laser race between the USSR and the U.S. during the Cold War during a visit to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on April 22.
Free and open to the public, the event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, 1640 Cumberland Ave.
By examining the roles and actions of scientists, politicians, government officials and military personnel who participated in the Soviet High Energy Laser Research and Development programs from 1963 to 1980, Zarubin will look at the inside realities of the laser weapon race.
From 1967 until 1990, Zarubin worked in the Soviet Ministry of Defense Industry as technical director and director of Laser and Laser Systems Chief Directorate. Zarubin was deeply involved in the Cold War as one of Russia’s scientists and administrators, integral to the development of high-energy lasers, and as one of the leaders of the Soviet equivalent of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, “Star Wars.”
Zarubin was the winner of the Soviet state prize for science and technology in 1980 and the Russian government prize for science and technology in 2002.
The Baker Center, which opened at UT in 2003, develops programs and promotes research to further the public’s knowledge of our system of governance, and to highlight the critical importance of public service, a hallmark of Baker’s career.
For more about the Baker Center, see http://www.bakercenter.utk.edu.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)