What happens when universities partner with weapons labs? Implications of the University of Michigan/Los Alamos computing facility
In 2024, the University of Michigan (U-M) and Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) announced a partnership to build a $1.25 billion high-performance research computing facility. While U-M leadership asserts that the facility will lead to advances in medicine, cleaner energy, and climate science, the history of similar partnerships since World War II shows that they pose grave intellectual, institutional, and ethical challenges. The partnership's impact on the future of U-M's research and teaching missions, and its impact on the community where it will be sited, demands a transparent, university-wide deliberation, involving faculty, student, staff, and community stakeholders, as well as experts on the governance of research and higher education, to determine whether it is aligned with or in conflict with U-M's research, teaching, and public responsibilities.
