Subrata Ghoshroy on U.S. Military Funding of Academic Research

Subrata Ghoshroy, an MIT researcher and former Congressional whistleblower on faked "Star Wars" missile defense tests by government contractors, spoke to a group of 250 striking students in early December at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. The students have been demanding that their college stop all military research - part of a national movement towards that end. In his talk, Ghoshroy gave a summary of the history of military funding of U.S. academic research, the significant role MIT leaders played in creating that military-academic complex, and discussed the struggles of the many MIT students and faculty that have protested the military role in higher education since the 1960s.

Note: The first 13 minutes and 30 seconds of the video are in German. Ghoshroy's subsequent talk and most of the audience's questions are in English.

Subrata Ghoshroy is a Research Associate in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, he was a Senior Defense Analyst at the Government Accountability Office. He worked more than 20 years as an engineer and an engineering-manager in developing high-power and high-energy laser, electron beam, and pulse power technologies and has a highly successful track record in managing sophisticated, interdisciplinary teams to develop advanced technology for DOD, DOE, and NASA.