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

An informal history of the California Institute of Technology : [pictorial highlights, 1891-1966]

Seventy-five years have passed since the 1891 opening of "Throop University," a school of arts and crafts that has evolved into the preeminent institution that is today's California Institute of Technology. This anniversary serves as an occasion to look back at our beginnings and to assess our future. It is rewarding to note the continuity of the past 75 years, to emphasize this continuity, and to recognize that changes in the Institute have always accompanied and have often preceded changes in the community and in the country. In presenting this pictorial account of the Institute's development, I would point out with pride that for 75 years Caltech has served the present and anticipated the future -- a challenge that will always be our goal

The goals of University research

The university is viewed as an institution for sharpening men's intellectual abilities and focusing them on mankind's basic problems. Research seeks knowledge as a step toward understanding

History and Activities of the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Radiation Laboratory of the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the largest wartime laboratory devoted to radar research and development and the largest single enterprise of the National Defense Research Committee, is demobilizing after five years of intense work heretofore shrouded by tight military security. Operating as a quasi-governmental agency, the Radiation Laboratory participated in one of the most extraordinary cooperative scientific efforts in history -- an enterprise which included many British government and industrial laboratories, several U.S. Army and Navy laboratories, and a host of U.S. industrial laboratories, large and small. From the combined effort of all came the development of a radar industry which provided Allied fighting forces with an amazing array of radar equipments. Individually, each was far in advance of any radar the enemy nations possessed; collectively, our radar revolutionized many phases of modern warfare and contributed significantly to the Allied victory

The physics of solids

I have been asked to review before this group some of the developments in physics during the past twenty-five years, particularly as they relate to our understanding of the physics of solids. I am going to address my remarks particularly to those who have not been in a position to follow these developments but who are interested in getting a general idea of the new ideas which have proved of value in understanding and correlating the properties of solids

Some Aspects of Nuclear Physics of Possible Interest in Biological Work

In selecting a title for this paper I have endeavored to choose one which would create no illusions as to its purpose or content. It is my purpose only to review (in a very elementary way) some of the aspects of nuclear physics which give promise of providing useful tools in biological research. I shall attempt to indicate a few of the types of problems to which these tools may be applied. I am not reporting any research which has been carried on in this field. I cannot claim originality for any of the suggestions I am going to make concerning biological problems, since they are all either more or less obvious or else have been proposed by various workers in this field (1). Note that these are only suggestions as to possible problems to which these new tools may be applied; not predictions of any definite results which may be obtained. It is as difficult to make predictions in this field now as it would have been thirty-five years ago to predict the biological applications of x-rays and radioactivity

Scientific Manpower

The most conservative figures on the shortage of engineers suggests that this shortage is now around 95,000 and will reach 156,000 by 1955. A less conservative view of the figures available suggests that this situation might be much worse. The number of new engineers now being produced each year may be actually less than the number lost to engineering activities through death, military service, and transfer to nonengineering duties. We might be 300,000 engineers short by 1955. Since it takes four years to train an engineer, all we can do during the next four years is to make better use of the engineering manpower which will be available. But high-school students are being discouraged from entering the fields of science and engineering by misleading statements of prominent people that science and engineering are the cause of the world's troubles. Engineers and scientists can do much to remove this misapprehension by pointing out that scientists and engineers also work for human welfare and that science and engineering are helping to solve the world's troubles rather than causing them. This must be done and additional scholarship funds be made available before the downward trend in engineering and science enrollments is reversed

The Role of Science in Human Welfare

Excerpts from a speec

Some Dilemmas in Science

Caltech's president emeritus comes back to give the 1977 Commencement Address