-Priestley Medal Address-

f he Present State ©f Academic Research CHARLES A. KRAUS, Brown University, Providence, R. /.

The Priestley medalist for 1950 feels that scientific

research occupies the number one spot in importance

among human activities and calls attention to the

failures in supporting adequate research programs

A HE present age, our own, has only one outstanding achievement to its credit: it has learned how to apply research in the solution of man's everlasting problem, the problem of existence. Of all human activities, none is playing a more impor­tant role today than in research. Our con­tinued well-being, indeed our very exist­ence, may well depend on the effective­ness with which we are able to apply re­search in the solution of our ever-growing problems.

The realization that research is the key to the problems of our material existence is of so recent a date that, even today, otherwise well informed persons have little understanding of its significance. Al­though the shooting war ended five years ago and the cold war holds forth the menace of another hot war, our Govern­ment in Washington has done little to promote t h e development of research in this country. Nor has a satisfactory pro­cedure been evolved in the meant ime for the effective utilization of our scientifi­cally trained personnel. I br ing these questions up only to illustrate the lament­able lack of understanding on the part of the public with regard to research; in a critical situation this might well have de­plorable consequences.

It is my purpose to discuss, briefly, the present state of research in this country. Is our research production large or small,

considering the number of trained scien­tists; is it of high quality; where is it being done and by whom? Are we train­ing research workers in adequate number and are we training them well? And, finally, are we using these trained re­search workers to best advantage; are we giving them opportunity and encourage­ment? To date, these questions have re­ceived little attention.

I shall confine my discussion to funda­mental research in chemistry as distin­guished from industrial or applied re­search, and I shall call it academic re­search, whether it is done in educational institutions or elsewhere. It is research, the results of which, at the moment, ap ­pear to serve no useful purpose, but which do serve as the raw material which industrial research processes in the de­velopment of new and useful £>roducts.

Most of the results of academic research in chemistry in this country are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Many papers appear in other journals, such as the Journal of Physical and Colloid Chemistry, the Journal of Organic Chemistry, the Journal of Chemi­cal Physics, and the like, but it is prob­ably safe to assume that two thirds of all such publications appear in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

I have examined all the papers that appeared in JACS for 1949, excluding

Notes and Communications to the Editor. There were published, in ail, 1,086 papers, distributed as follows according to origin:

Source of Papers

Academic laboratories Industrial laboratories Government laboratories All others

(including foreign) Total

Number

694 203

94

95 1,086

% 64.0 18.6 8.65

8.75 100.00

An examination of the Journal numbers from February to July 1950, inclusive, shows no material change in the distribu­tion of papers so far as their origin is concerned. It is of interest to note t h e large number of papers ( 369c ) coming from other than academic laboratories. Particularly noteworthy is the increasing number of papers coming from industrial and government laboratories (27 .3%) . I n the February to July period, 1950, the pe r ­centage rose to 28.6.

Of the 694 papers in 1949, originating in 98 academic laboratories, 386 ( 56% ) came from 44 publicly controlled institu­tions and 308 ( 4 4 % ) from 54 privately controlled institutions. Four institutions supplied 2 5 ' < of the papers, 12 supplied 50%, 28 supplied 7 5 % , and the remaining 2 5 % was supplied by 70 institutions.

It is apparent that, in this country, r e ­search is concentrated in a comparatively small number of institutions. Publicly

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controlled institutions a.re much more ac ­tive in research than are privately eon-trolled colleges and universities. Approxi­mately one half the total number of pub ­licly controlled institutions contributed papers to J ACS in 1949 ; only a small fraction of the privately controlled insti­tutions made such contributions.

Personal Touch The concentration of research in a

small number of institutions reflects a similar concentration o f graduate students in the same institutions. The question naturally arises: have some of our gradi: a te chemistry depar tments become too populous? When the graduate student body of a department runs into the hun­dreds, does not the work of the depart­ment, both research axid instruction, tend to become stereotyped and mechanical? is there not a great clanger that the per ­sonal touch will be lost?

Whatever the answer to these questions may be , it appears t h a t more and more reliance is being placed in courses a n d examinations and less emphasis is being placed on research, i n not a few institu­tions, a graduate student has little or no opportunity to carry on research until after two years. Is not research one of t h e most important elements in the student's course of training; and can anything arouse the student's curiosity and interest as can research? Some of our better col­leges recognize the educat ional value of research and include it in their curricula for the last year or t w o . Should not our graduate students begin research immedi­ately on entering graduate school?

In many of our xmiversities a large graduate student body is a concomitant of a large body of undergraduate students. Much of the instructional work in such institutions is carried on by graduate as­sistants. These assistants frequently have heavy teaching loads a n d they are paid at bare subsistence rates. I t would seem. would it not, that, in a sense, t he student buys his degree through service. Throughout the country, a system has sprung up in which o u r graduate students are held in a state of virtual servitude until they have sweated out a Ph.D. de­gree. One of the worst features of this system is that it does not permit graduate students to move freely from one institu­tion to another.

While it is t rue tha t f h e graduate stu­dent gains something through his instruc­tional experience, this does not compen­sate adequately for t h e loss of time tha t should be used for study and research. Our present system of undergraduate in­struction b y graduate students has grown up as a result of the inability of our uni ­versities to finance instruct ion b y means of trained instructors. Doubtless this sys­tem will continue t o flourish. However, it would seem that if the Government is to promote the development of research, talented graduate students should be pro­vided with fellowships tha t wou ld relieve them of t h e necessity of spending much of their t ime in undergraduate instruction.

As indicated by p a p e r s published, the

great bulk of academic research is carried on in institutions that grant the Ph .D. degree. About 25 or 30 institutions that do not give the Ph.D. degree contributed papers in 1949. The lack of research pro­duction among those w h o teach in our colleges is regrettable. I n few of our col­leges is research encouraged; in some it is definitely discouraged. In some in­stances, the teaching load of staff mem­bers is unduly heavy; in some others, facilities for research are limited. Even so, one might expect greater research pro­duction in our colleges than is presently the case.

It may be pointed out that teachers in our universities are coming to rely more and more on graduate s tudents and other assistants for carrying out their researches. We have comparatively few men who carryr out their own researches as did Nef, Kohler, Michael, and Gomberg. Usually, the more important problems are beyond the capacity of a graduate student. There is a great reservoir of research capacity in the teaching staffs of our colleges. Un­fortunately, conditions in many of our colleges are not conducive to research pro­duction; let us hope that this situation may be improved.^

There is a need for more small gradu­ate depar tments of chemistry where stu­dents come into close contact with their instructors and with one another. Re­search should be the first order of busi­ness with the incoming graduate student. At t h e same time, in the case of talented undergraduate students, research might well be begun in the undergraduate years. Our upper class undergraduate students of today are better prepared, so far as sub­ject mat ter is concerned, than were gradu­ate students 50 years ago.

W e have many talented Ph.D. gradu­ates who wish to continue research in the academic field. Their opportunities for doing so are very limited. One outlet for such men should be our colleges. But

QUOTOOMS (REG. U. S. RATENT OFFICE) One time that mathematics

seems to let you doivn is tvhen you calculate what you re really worth.

A good executive is a man who can take a hack seat among his men without losing his grip on the steering wheel.

You can tell a lot about a man by how willingly he gives another fellow credit when you re sure he doesn't have to.

— O . A. BATTISTA

(ALL · R I G H T S R E S E R V E D )

our colleges, with few exceptions, do not encourage research and they are reluctant to supply funds for research. Our larger universities are overpopulated with under­graduate students , teaching loads are often unduly heavy and, in many instances, the young instructor finds research facili­ties limited. There is no quest ion but that many talented research men are lost to the academic profession because re­search opportunit ies are greater in in­dustry.

Research and research training have had a very recent and haphazard develop­ment in this country. Prior to 1900 there were less than half a dozen institutions in which s tudents could carry on research at the predoctoral level. Since that time, the number of institutions prepar ing men for the doctorate has increased markedly. In the main, these have been institutions having large underg radua te student bodies; this is particularly t rue of the pub ­licly controlled institutions. Considering their n u m b e r only a small fraction of the private institutions have entered the graduate field. Whi le it is t rue that gradu­ate educat ion is expensive, and many of our colleges have limited resources, the lag of some of our colleges in research is more largely due to lack of appreciation of the impor tance of research than to financial limitations. Research is here to stay; it is one of the most important de­velopments of our t ime; our colleges can­not afford to overlook this development if they a re to discharge properly the duties that they owe to the public .

In closing I offer one or two sugges­tions: T h e greatest present need of our colleges and universities is funds for pre­doctoral fellowships for our most ta lented gradua te s tudents in order tha t they may be relieved from the t ime-consuming and often tedious tasks incident to undergradu­ate assisting.

Research Oppor tun i ty Needed A second need is greater opportunity

for research by younger staff members . Here, bo th t ime and facilities are involved. It is part icularly important that younger men have t ime to carry on research them­selves ra ther than through graduate stu­dents. W e need to bea r in mind tha t if we are to improve the quali ty and increase the quant i ty of our research, w e must start at the bo t tom; it is t h e young men of to­day w h o will de te rmine t h e course of research tomorrow.

My present analysis of the state of re­search in this country is admit tedly in­complete. I t is only a test experiment to determine if there is enough "pay dir t" present to warran t further exploration. In my judgment , a thoroughgoing study and analysis of our scientific research produc­tion would throw much light on important questions relating to research and gradu­ate instruction. Such a study would be most oppor tune at a t ime when the ques­tion of government support for our colleges and universities is receiving attention.

Presented before the general meeting of the 118th ACS national meeting at Chicago, Sept. 6, 1950.

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