Lee A. DuBridge

The Future of University Research

This is an excerpt from an address delivered to the Annual Banquet of the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at Los Angeles, California, December 3, 1968. Dr. DuBridge, retiring president of the California Institute of Technology, is President Nixons science adviser.

A report by the AEC General Advisory Committee

The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 provides in Section 2(b) that “There shall be a General Advisory Committee to advise the Commission on scientific and technical matters relating to materials, production, and research and development, to be composed of nine members, who shall be appointed from civilian life by the President.” The Act further directs that “The Committee shall designate one of its own members as Chairman. The Committee shall meet at least four times in every calendar year.” Beyond that, the Act does not specify how the Committee is to perform its advisory functions, how it is to obtain the information and analysis on which to base its advice, nor how to determine the issues to which it should direct its attention.

Scientific manpower problems

There has been a great deal of discussion during recent years of the problems arising from the shortage of scientists and engineers. This is a serious problem but unfortunately it is also a complex one. Hence there is confusion, both as to the facts and as to the remedies. It is desirable, therefore, to be clear about what factors are affecting the demand for scientists and engineers; what factors are influencing the supply; which of these various factors are long- and which are short-term in nature and finally which remedies should be considered for the short-term or the long-term problem.

The Kelly Committee Report… a summary

On October 15th, six months after the Secretary of Commerce called for the formation of the ad hoc Committee for “the evaluation of the functions and operations of the National Bureau of Standards in relation to the national needs”, the Committee submitted a comprehensive 109‐page report which should stand as a positive and convincing answer to the Bureaus critics. The report makes some important points clear at the outset: in the first place, the Bureaus staff is competent and its work is not only of high caliber but is essential to the nation, thus meriting the fullest support of the Federal Government; secondly, the Bureau, severely handicapped by obsolete and inadequate space and facilities, has not been able to keep pace with the expanding needs of the nations technology and its basic programs of testing and research are in urgent need of being strengthened; thirdly, in spite of the high standing of the present personnel of the Bureau in the scientific world, the Committee is concerned that NBS is...

Physicists in California

During the past thirty years great changes have taken place in physics not only in California but throughout the country. The membership lists of the American Physical Society for 1920, 1930, 1940, and 1951 provide illuminating data on these changes.