RAND Corporation

Your humble servant here once had the opportunity to visit the Rand Corporation.  As part of his Ph.D. program he was an intern for a summer at the University of California/Davis.  After the internship, he drove to the Laguna Beach area south of Los Angeles to visit old hometown friends.  On the way down he could not resist the chance to stop at RAND to visit with its fundraiser!  It was a fabulous experience.  First, the head fundraiser was a woman with a Ph.D. in civil engineering from UCLA!  And her specialty at RAND was tracking the prices of water worldwide!  This over twenty years ago now; RAND was already anticipating potable water shortages in the future!  It is coming yet.  Second, she did fundraising for project that did not get research sponsors.  For instance, while I was there couriers from the Pentagon with mail pouches chained to their wrists were coming and going!  RAND is a think tank for the US military, and the US Secretary of Defense sat on its board of directors.  This kind of connection enabled her to tap some serious money to underwrite forecasting research that did not attract venture capital yet.  Third, RAND was starting its own Ph.D. program in house!  My career counselor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison urged me to enroll; I was too close to dissertation at Madison to start over.  All in all, it was an amazing experience.  I would like to visit again - especially if its Ph.D. program is intact.  Dr. Rux