DARPA Director Leaves Pentagon For Google 70
New submitter srussia writes with this quote from Wired:
"DARPA director Regina Dugan will soon be stepping down from her position atop the Pentagon's premiere research shop to take a job with Google. Dugan, whose controversial tenure at the agency lasted just under three years, was 'offered and accepted at senior executive position' with the internet giant, according to DARPA spokesman Eric Mazzacone. She felt she could not say no to such an 'innovative company,' he adds. ... 'There is a time and a place for daydreaming. But it is not at DARPA,' she told a congressional panel in March 2011. 'DARPA is not the place of dreamlike musings or fantasies, not a place for self-indulging in wishes and hopes. DARPA is a place of doing.' For an agency that spent millions of dollars on shape-shifting robots, Mach 20 missiles, and mind-controlled limbs, it was something of a revolutionary statement. The shift was only one of the reasons why Dugan was a highly polarizing figure within her agency, and in the larger defense research community."
Re:Can someone explain what "the shift" means? (Score:5, Interesting)
those exotic programs which are mentioned in the article ought to take a lot longer than 3 years to manifest
DARPA = Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Yes, DARPA's place is exploring wild ideas, pushing the envelope. But the current administration doesn't want to fund basic research if it's related to the military so they appointed her to merge her budget with routine acquisitions; that way it looks like research is still in the budget when it was actually cut.
It's just a coincidence that her leaving comes at a time when there's an investigation into some of those acquisitions that were no bid contracts to the company she founded and is still part owner of.
Re:Incest all around. (Score:4, Interesting)
It's more that it's a sign of the times of how 'top-people' are expected to be 'top-people' wherever they are. Take a 'top-banker' and make him head of the post office and before you know it, you have an extremely profitable post office. Or something. What the exchange of Petraeus and Panetta say, is that people don't believe in earning your spurs in your own line of business anymore.