Editor,
We are responding to a letter in the May 1 Daily Lobo from Bob Anderson. He seems confused about why professor Mohammed El-Genk was chosen as the 46th Annual Research Lecturer and wrote, “I am greatly disappointed that UNM gave a prestigious award, several thousand dollars and time off to someone who is basically using our school to help the military wage war in space.” This comment is inaccurate and unfair.
Dr. El-Genk received the award for many reasons. For starters, he has published more than 230 papers in conference proceedings and technical journals. He has edited more than 50 volumes containing more than 4,000 articles on space, nuclear power and related areas. He has been named a fellow in three engineering societies. El-Genk also is a dedicated instructor, adviser and mentor to his graduate and undergraduate students. Much more should be said, but it would take several letters to list all of Dr. El-Genk’s personal and professional accomplishments.
Traveling in the “next great frontier for exploration for humankind” is not like hopping to the store to get some milk. It is roughly 382,688 kilometers from Earth to the moon and 227,940,000 kilometers from the sun to Mars. Solar energy that is collectible and usable by spacecraft decreases dramatically as it travels farther away from the sun.
Nuclear fuels carry more power per mass than chemical fuels and can be used in the deep, dark depths of space. The greatest successes of the Pioneer, Voyager, Viking, Galileo and Pathfinder missions would not have been possible without nuclear power. This is something Anderson should have picked up from Dr. El-Genk’s lecture.
El-Genk’s lecture was in no way geared toward “helping the military wage war in space.” Anderson also has a strange view of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies’ Web site, which says nothing about the fabled Star Wars collaboration happening at UNM but quite a bit about the research pusrsued by the institute.
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All of the research conducted at the institute has been well documented. Anyone who is interested could easily do a search on El-Genk and see what he has been up to for the last 25 years.
Rick Gleicher and Jeff King,
Nuclear Engineering
Graduate Students
Veronica Klein,
Nuclear Engineering Undergraduate Student
