Delores Etter, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been appointed U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for science and technology by President Clinton.
Etter will manage the budget of the Department of Defense Science and Technology Program and serve as the U.S. representative to the NATO Research and Technology Board. Her responsibilities will include developing technologies for the U.S. military and oversight of all federally funded Research and Development Centers.
Etter has spent a considerable portion of her career working for the government on various committees, boards and studies. She is a member of the Defense Science Board, Naval Research Advisory Committee and the Air Force Studies Board Standing Committee on Space Technology. As a recent member of the Federal Aviation Administration Research, Development and Engineering Advisory Committee, she helped evaluate a FAA program concerning responses to potential terrorist threats.
Prior to joining CU-Boulder faculty, Etter was a faculty member in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of New Mexico. During 1989, she served as UNM's associate vice president for academic affairs. During 1983-84, she taught in the electrical engineering department at Stanford University as a National Science Foundation visiting professor.
She is the author of six textbooks.
Etter will take a leave of absence from CU-Boulder to accept the two and a half-year appointment. She and her husband, Jerry, a mechanical and aerospace engineer, reside in Longmont.