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James R. Schlesinger to speak at BYU Feb. 9

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy

James R. Schlesinger, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy, will be speaking at Brigham Young University Tuesday, Feb. 9, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center Assembly Hall.

Schlesinger’s subject will be “Facing Old and New Defense Challenges.” His lecture is sponsored by BYU’s Wheatley Institution and the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies.

Schlesinger served as Secretary of Defense under Presidents Nixon and Ford. He later became the first Secretary of Energy and served from 1977 to 1979 under President Carter. He has also acted as chairman for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

Previous to his government service, he was a professor of economics at the University of Virginia. He was educated at Harvard, receiving his doctorate in economics in 1956. As a professor, he published “The Political Economy of National Security.”

In 2002, Schlesinger was named to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. He has served on various boards and councils including the Defense Policy Board, the Arms Control and Nonproliferation Advisory Board and the Defense Science Board.

For more information, contact Richard Williams at (801) 422-5883.

Writer: Brandon Garrett

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Photo by Brian Capt/BYU Photo

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