The National Academy of Sciences The First Hundred Years, 1863-1963 (1978) / Chapter Skim
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17. Academy Centennial
17. Academy Centennial
Pages 565-594
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From page 565... ...
Bronk sent a long personal letter to the membership of the Academy declaring his intention to refuse another renomination, although he would "gladly serve in an unofficial capacity whenever called upon." He pointed out that the nature of the presidency, in the light of the Academy's greatly increased opportunities and responsibilities, had undergone marked change in his twelve years in office and that fact should be considered in the choice of a new President. It had been a "period of rapid evolution of the Academy," owing much to the steady growth of federal involvement in science and technology.
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From page 566... ...
The Nominating Committee's unanimous ~ DetIev W Bronk letter, lanuary ~6, ~962 (NAS Archives: NAS: Presidency: Nature of Office: Consideration by Members)
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From page 567... ...
He assumed the presidency on a half-time basis on July I, ~962, and three years later, in accordance with the wishes of the membership, he became the first full-time President of the Academy, as well as its first salaried President.4 The vastly altered outlook and the wide-ranging operations of the Academy as Seitz took office in ~962 made it evident, as Bronk agreed, that he must have special assistants and consultants to aid him with the increased administrative responsibilities of the office, par2 Report of the Nominating Committee to the Members .
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From page 568... ...
The President was subsequently to have a number of such staff advisors, among them former NSF Director Alan Waterman; Academy members Harry H Hess and James A
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From page 569... ...
, representing over one hundred and seventy thousand members in the national engineering societies, confirmed the intention of the engineers to afford themselves of opportunities and services similar to those the Academy provided in science and raised the question of the relationship of the proposed new academy to the National Academy of Sciences.8 Bronk was requested by the engineers to appoint a representative to an EJC committee on a national academy of engineering, and in January ~96~ he nominated himself.9 A year later he appointed a committee under Academy Vice-President Julius A Stratton of MIT to consult with the Engineers Joint Council on their plans, thus beginning several years of discussions on whether the engineers should establish an independent academy or affiliate with the National Academy of Sciences.~° Shortly after his election, Seitz unquestionably the most historyminded of Academy Presidents—reviewed the century of Academy relations between scientists and engineers, their representation among the incorporators in ~863, the founding of the National Research Council in ~9~6 with the assistance of the Engineering Foundation, the work of the NRC Division of Engineering following World War I, and the presidency of engineer Frank B
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From page 571... ...
; Seitz, "Some Thoughts on an NAE," NAS-NRC, News Report 14:53-57 (July-August ~ 964) ; "Minutes of the Council," September 26, ~ 964, pp.
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From page 572... ...
~8 The Articles of Organization stipulated, as well, that the NAE Council would recommend individuals for the chairmanship of the Research Council's Division of Engineering and Industrial Research.
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He could see that in the existing situation, studies in this area, commissioned directly by the White House, would t9 NAS, Annual Reportfor 1964-65, p. 98; NAS Archives: E&JR: Appointments: Chairman: ~965; ibid., E&JR: Name Change: February ~966.
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From page 574... ...
, he wrote Detlev Bronk, as President of the Academy, that he too saw a possible role for the Academy in the formulation of national science policies. Following discussions at the annual meeting of the Academy in April ~96~, Bronk appointed Kistiakowsky Chairman of an ad hoc Committee on Government Relations to recommend an appropriate advisory mechanism and the scope of its charge.22 In February ~963, the standing Committee on Government Relations (appointed in January ~96s on the recommendation of the ad hoc committee)
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From page 575... ...
It addressed the problem of uncontrolled world population growth and immediately attracted nationwide attention and almost unanimously favorable reaction from the press. Publication of the report was followed that same month by an announcement by the National Institutes of Health that its budget would include an additional $4 million in the coming fiscal year for research on the biology of human reproduction.
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From page 576... ...
Mr. Daddario was seeking a comprehensive study of those aspects of policy that the government must consider in its support of scientific research.29 The request was put before an ad hoc panel of seven members from the cosPuP and eight other scientists designated by Kistiakowsky for 1 ~ 26 Christian Science Monitor, May 1, 1963.
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, pp. v, ~-4; NAs, Annual Reportfor 1964-65, p.
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From page 578... ...
According to Harvey Brooks, Dean of Engineering and Applied Physics at Harvard, who succeeded Kistiakowsky as Chairman of the cosPuP, "the disciplinary reviews, or planning reports, have constituted the most important single activity of cosPuP."32 The first such report, Ground-Based Astronomy: A Ten-Year Program, was published in ~964 and was concerned mainly with the need for astronomical facilities. The next reports, published in early ~966, were Plant Sciences and Digital Computer Needs in Colleges and Universities.
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From page 579... ...
In November ~962 the Committee on Natural Resources, its consultants, and the Academy staff completed the study. Accompanied by separate reports on the need for research in expanding and making better use of the nation's renewable resources; of water, minerals, energy, and marine resources; and for better understanding of related social and economic factors, the summary report found this country, "in contrast with many other areas of the world .
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From page 580... ...
Brown, Professor of Geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was elected to a four-year term as Foreign Secretary that April.34 In contrast with past Foreign Sec~ ~ i; Natural Resources: A Summary Report to the President of the United States (NAS-NRC Publication loon, ~962)
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From page 581... ...
Expanding efforts begun under Robertson, American scientists traveled to developing countries around the globe to investigate scientific and technological facilities, institutional arrangements, and manpower, sharing their expertise with government officials and scientists in the host countries and recommending remedial programs to American foreign aid agencies where appropriate. Regional conferences and symposia were held on a variety of topics of concern to developing nations, and the US-USSR exchange program, initiated in ~959, was followed by similar programs with Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia.37 Under Brown's vigorous leadership, the Office of the Foreign Secretary became one of the largest activities of the Academy and, as a more flexible instrument with funds to establish an H
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. 39 NAS, Annual Reportfor 1959~0, pp.
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The new Board was to serve as the American counterpart to the CIG, as well as coordinate other national geophysical programs, especially those of an interdisciplinary natured The Board's panel on solid-earth problems was set up jointly with the NRC Division of Earth Sciences in anticipation of ~csu's Upper Mantle Project, a worldwide investigation of the nature of the earth's mantle and its influence on the development of the earth's crust. A second Board panel was made responsible for U.S.
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From page 584... ...
; "Closing the Upper Mantle Project: New Legacies in Earth Science," NA0NRC, News Report 21 :2-3 (November 1971)
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From page 585... ...
The Academy's Drug Research Board played an important role with respect to those programs. The organization of the Board grew out of the work of a special Academy committee advisory to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, convened in ~960 to assess recent public criticism directed at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
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From page 586... ...
The committee recommended also that an extensive advisory apparatus be created within the FDA to provide it with continuing policy guidances Two years later, following the tragic consequences to pregnant women who had taken the drug thalidomide, Congress amended the 1938 act to strengthen federal control of drug safety. In the private sector, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association created a Commission on Drug Safety to consider the principles underlying the safe introduction of new drugs for general use.
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From page 587... ...
lo; NAS, Annual Reportfor 1961~2, pp. 2' 35 For the ultimate completion of the Academy building, see Detlev Bronk, "A National Focus of Science and Research," Sciencel76:37~379 (April 28, ~972)
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was an elaborate, resplendent, and memorable event. It Research Council (NAS, Annual Reportfor 1962~3, pp.
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Weir Mitchell, at that time eighty-four and the oldest living member of the Academy, reminisce about his association with Joseph Henry, who had served as the Academy's second President from ~868 to ~878.58 The Centennial banquet had as guests of honor Sir Howard Florey, President of the Royal Society of London, the oldest academy of 56 A congressional study in ~964, National Goals and Policies, declared that for the first time national science policy had assumed "major public dimensions," requiring equal consideration with economic policy and foreign policy (U.S. Congress, House Select Committee on Government Research, House Report ~ 94 I, 88th Cong., ad sees., December 29, ~964, p.
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From page 590... ...
23. Additional details of the celebration appear in NAS, Annual Reportfor 1963-64, pp.
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From page 591... ...
As a result in large part of the recommendations of this Academy, the Federal Government enlarged its scientific activities through such agencies as the Geological Survey, the Weather Bureau, the National Bureau of Standards, the Forest Service, and many others, but it took the First World War to bring science into central contact with governmental policy and it took the Second World War to make scientific counsel an indispensable function of government.... Recent scientific advances have not only made international cooperation desirable, but they have made it essential.
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From page 592... ...
As the Academy marked the first half-century of its existence, the United States faced the imminence of a world war; and the Academy responded by creating the National Research Council as an operating arm to meet the government's burgeoning needs for technical advice. Before another quarter century had elapsed, this country was once again at war and turning to the Academy with momentous questions about an awesome new force about to be unleashed on the world— atomic energy, with all its implications for war and peace.
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From page 593... ...
Academy Centennial 1 593 presented during the centennial observance and later published as The Scientific Endeavor. One sees in the titles of those sessions the heights to which the human mind aspires: "History of the Universe," "Nature of Matter," "The Determinants and Evolution of Life," and under the general rubric, "The Scientific Endeavor," such large social issues as "Communication and Comprehension of Scientific Knowledge," "The Role of Science in Universities, Government, and Industry: Science and Public Policy," "Synthesis and Applications of Scientific Knowledge for Human Use," and "Science in the Satisfaction of Human Aspiration." This history has recorded the role of the National Academy of Sciences in its relationship to the federal government and to the growth and maturation of science itself.
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