Grantee Research Contributes to New Missile Defense Plan

President Obama announced a new missile defense plan, which would scrap the planned system in Poland and the Czech Republic and instead deploy a reconfigured system aimed at intercepting short- and medium-range Iranian missiles. At first, the system will be based aboard ships and later on land somewhere in Europe. Earlier this year, MacArthur grantee and Stanford University physicist Dean Wilkening presented technical proposals to the Administration for alternate approaches, arguing persuasively that it would be more effective to station missiles and radar systems elsewhere. His research helped facilitate this shift in U.S. policy, allowing the U.S. and Europeans to retain defense options against Iranian missiles while also removing a major irritant in the U.S.-Russia relationship. The news was widely covered internationally, including by The New York Times.