Tony Tether DARPA Directorship to End in February
A quick news flash: Emails are floating around indicating that Tony Tether’s tenure as the Director of DARPA will end this month, with the two week notice on February 20. The text of the message:
The Time to Go has Been Settled
As you know, I had said that I was asked to stay on at DARPA until replaced.
It turns out that that was not the case.
I was informed last week that the Administration had decided that I was to leave now with February 20th as a two week notice.
So it’s over.
But it has been a good ride and we have many, perhaps thousands, of technology developments most of which are yet to come, but also many which are out being used saving our Soldiers lives yet making them far more effective than the adversaries they face.
I want you to know that I am proud of all of you, current and past, and will never forget what you have done.
Once I know what I am doing, I will let you know.
God bless all of you, and most of all, God Bless America.
Tony
Recently, I wrote an essay about what needs to happen at DARPA. I’ll comment further about this after letting this news digest for a few hours…
Peter Lee @ February 9, 2009
Your essay on what needs to happen at DARPA is quite cogent. Especially getting good people. So put your words into action and come work here. It’ll change your life.
Under the right leadership, I would certainly be very interested in a stint at DARPA! I think many of my colleagues would, too.
A personal note: I am in my 2nd year as dept head, having just replaced Jeannette Wing who is now AD at NSF/CISE. I thus think it would be too big a disruption for CMU if I were to leave for an IPA now. But I agree with your main point, which is that the academic community will need to respond in force when/if the new director makes the call. A LOT hinges on who the new director turns out to be.
What happened to the other part of this blog???
[…] end of the Tether era at DARPA has generated a lot of speculation about Tether’s successor — though nothing yet that […]