Joseph S. Nye Jr., professor of Government, said yesterday he will accept a post in the Carter administration as deputy Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology.

The appointment will be announced officially either late this week or early next week, Nye said. Carter press aides declined to comment yesterday.

Nye said that most of his work will center around the international nuclear proliferation problem, though the post also will involve assisting in the supervision of security arms sales transfers, weapons that are given or sold in other countries, such as airplanes and tanks.

"It'll involve a good deal of work on implementing President Carter's proposal to stop nuclear proliferation," he said.

Nye will work under Lucy W. Benson, former Secretary of Human Affairs under Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and former president of the National League of Women Voters.

"I accepted the post because the issue of proliferation strikes me as extremely important, and also because Mrs. Benson is going to be an exciting woman to work under," Nye said, adding that he was "favorably impressed" with Benson.

Nye worked for the last year on a Ford Foundation panel set up to study commercial nuclear energy, and was a consultant for the congressional Murphy Commission, which dealt with physical interdependence and nuclear proliferation.

He plans to take a two-year leave of absence from Harvard, and does not intend to give up his tenure.

"I love teaching, and I don't want to think I'll get away from it. I have mixed feelings about leaving," he said.

This semester Nye taught Government 40, "Continuity and Change in In- ternational Politics," and Government 175a, "International Organization and Interdependence." This spring Nye was scheduled to teach Government 279, a seminar on "Selected Issues in American Foreign Policy" with Graham T. Allison Jr. '62