ALAN T. WATERMAN 



ers and experienced research investigators needed for the 

 guidance and training of future scientists may be diverted to 

 urgent practical problems or away from a specialty of their free 

 choice. 



The problem is not as simple as it may seem. Public 

 service is often mentioned as one of a university's aims, par- 

 ticularly training for public service; state universities, especially, 

 cannot neglect this responsibility. One of our first problems, 

 therefore, is to see that our universities, both private and state, 

 are adequately supported, in order that they may plan and 

 carry out the educational and research programs that they 

 really want, accepting or declining bids for research according 

 to their ability to perform it without disruption of the univer- 

 sity's normal program. 



But let us try to be fair and objective about these matters 

 and not cling blindly to tradition. It may be that in the modern 

 university all disciplines should begin to follow the lead of 

 agriculture and medicine and cultivate the applicational side. 

 This is a point to be considered carefully, however, since we 

 should do this with our eyes open and with proper safeguards 

 for the strength and well-being of free basic research. My own 

 thought is that the growing practical applications of physics, 

 chemistry, and mathematics should be shifted to engineering 

 departments and kept out of the regular science departments, 

 much as applied biology belongs in medical schools. 



Industrial Laboratories 



Although the conservation of basic research as an activity 

 of our universities is most certainly a primary consideration at 

 the present time, other means for the advancement of basic 

 research merit consideration. During the past ten years, the 

 amount of basic research in industrial laboratories has in- 

 creased; but if our total basic research effort is not to lao behind 



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