Chauncey Starr, 95; former UCLA dean worked with Oppenheimer
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Chauncey Starr, an internationally known nuclear energy consultant who worked with physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer during World War II and later became a dean at UCLA, has died. He was 95.
Starr, who still worked six days a week, died Tuesday at his home in Atherton, Calif. His heart stopped beating during a morning nap before heading into the office, said Clay Perry, a spokesman for the Electric Power Research Institute, which Starr founded in 1972.
On Monday, Starr attended a celebration in his honor at the Palo Alto-based EPRI, an independent, nonprofit center for public interest energy and environmental research. He wryly quipped to more than 200 people Monday that his title of EPRI president emeritus was academic speak for “has-been.”
Starr specialized in nuclear power, nuclear risk assessment and the challenges faced by the electric utility industry. In the weeks preceding his death, he actively worked with scientists, industrialists and politicians on risk-based analysis of nuclear plant investments and development of the “SuperGrid” -- an electrical system using superconductors to transport electricity with near-zero energy losses.
Starr won the 1990 National Medal of Technology for his contributions to engineering and the electric industry, and the 1988 International Technology Institute’s Rockwell Medal for technology that contributes to the betterment of society.
From 1967 to 1973, Starr was dean of engineering and applied science at UCLA, where he directed research on societal safety in technical systems. His research was published in the journal Science in 1969, and scientists still consider it the starting point for the technical field of risk analysis.
Before UCLA, he spent 20 years in private industry, including a stint as vice president of North American Aviation before the company became Rockwell International. He founded the company’s Atomics International Division.
During World War II, he worked with Oppenheimer for the Manhattan Engineering District at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., focusing on isotope separation technology.
Born April 14, 1912, in Newark, N.J., Starr earned an electrical engineering degree in 1932 and a doctorate in physics in 1935 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He was a former vice president of the National Academy of Engineering, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and an officer of the French Legion of Honor.
Starr is survived by his wife of 69 years, Doris; a daughter, Ariel Wooley of Los Altos, Calif.; a son, Ross Starr of San Diego; and five grandchildren.
