NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 



INTRODUCTION 



ASTRONOMICAL, ATMOSPHERIC, EARTH, AND OCEAN SCIENCES 



BIOLOGICAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 



MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING 



RESEARCH APPLICATIONS 

 SCIENTIFIC, TECHNOLOGICAL, AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 



SCIENCE EDUCATION 



The overall NSF submission was coordinated by Theodore W. Wirths. Staff 

 members who were mainly responsible for preparing and coordinating the 

 submissions of the various directorates and offices included: Albert Bridge- 

 water, Alan Grobecker, William Howard, Wayne Gruner, Thomas DeWitt, 

 Eloise E. Clark, Thomas Ubois, R.R. Ronkin, Edward Weiss, Burl Valentine, 

 Paul Merer, J. Arthur Jones, and Frederick W. Collins. 



INTRODUCTION 



NSF Mission 



The opening words of the legislation that created 

 the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1950 

 declare that the first purpose of the act is "to 

 promote the progress of science." The first pre- 

 scriptions for the Foundation in that original charter 

 are "to develop and encourage the pursuit of a na- 

 tional policy for the promotion of basic research 

 and education in the sciences; and to initiate and 

 support basic scientific research in the 

 mathematical, physical, medical, biological, engi- 

 neering, and other sciences. . . ." Other purposes 

 are stated and other functions prescribed in the 

 1950 text and in amendments through the years, 

 but by any standards, the commitment to the sup- 

 port of basic research and the promotion of the 

 progress of science retain primacy in the 

 Foundation's activities. 



In accordance with this national policy more 

 than 27 years ago and reaffirmed regularly by con- 

 gressional actions since, NSF accounts for nearly 

 23 percent of total Federal support of basic 

 research and for about 16 percent of total support 

 from all sources. Federal and non-Federal, for ba- 



sic research. Unique among Federal agencies in its 

 dedication to basic research per se and its respon- 

 sibility for future scientific research capability, the 

 Foundation seeks to press fundamental scientific 

 inquiry on all fronts. In responding to this dedica- 

 tion and this responsibility, it engages the efforts 

 of scientists, including many just entering upon 

 their careers, in more than 2,000 colleges, universi- 

 ties, and other research institutions. The diversity 

 and numbers of scientists and institutions involved 

 hold inherent promise that the research will be per- 

 formed at a high level of competence. It is to such 

 numbers and diversity that the high quality of ba- 

 sic research in the United States can be attributed 

 in part. 



The role of the Foundation in the advancement 

 of basic research is enhanced by the fact that the 

 more than 300 men and women who administer 

 and stafi" its support activities in that area are 

 themselves scientists who, being in close commu- 

 nication with the scientific community they serve, 

 share in its excitements of exploration and discov- 

 ery. There is a sharing, too, of the values that lend 

 drive to basic research — the satisfactions of intel- 

 lectual effort and intellectual achievement, and 

 indeed of the kind of aesthetic experience that 

 leads to the use of the word "elegant" as a precise 

 term for scientific achievements of a rare sort. 



NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 191 



