AMERICAN CATHOLICS AND SCIENCE 505 



active in their affairs. Best of all, perhaps, it brought a healthy 

 discontent to Catholic scientists. Dissatisfied with the accom- 

 plishments of Catholic institutions, they demanded more men 

 and money for science. 



In spite of these demands and their partial satisfaction. 

 Catholic institutions were still lagging. A more exhaustive sur- 

 vey of " The Origins of U. S. Scientists " made by Goodrich, 

 Knapp and Boehm " in 1951 showed that Catholic institutions 

 had an index of only 2.8, as compared with 17.8 for other 

 liberal arts colleges, in the preparation of graduates who went 

 on for the doctorate in science. Far from dissenting from these 

 findings, many Catholic scientists added data of their own to 

 show that Catholic schools were not " pulling their weight " in 

 scientific endeavor. Thus, in 1953, the second year of the 

 National Science Foundation fellowship program, the present 

 writer ^ called attention to the fact that, of 577 fellowships 

 awarded, only 7 (1.2%) went to students in Catholic institu- 

 tions; whereas, as Father Joseph Mulligan, of Fordham Uni- 

 versity pointed out, the student population was 6% of the 

 undergraduate population of the country. Since then achieve- 

 ment in the NSF program has improved, but even in 1960 only 

 to the point of 3% of the fellowships awarded. Father Mulligan 

 has indicated some extenuating factors for these low percent- 

 ages, but even so. Catholics are still not doing as much as they 

 should. 



Catholic scientists have made some notable contributions to 

 the advancement of science in the United States, such as the 

 work of the Jesuit Seismological Association, but these have 

 been fewer than our numerical strength would call for. Few 

 Catholics, for instance, have been elected to the National 

 Academy of Sciences and, strangest of all, fewer still, from the 

 United States, to the Pontifical Academy of Science. No Catho- 

 lic has ever been president of the AAAS and very few have held 

 offices in the other scientific organizations. 



^H. B. Goodrich, R. H. Knapp and George A. W. Boehm, "The Origins of 

 U. S. Scientists," Scientific American, CLXXXV (1951), 15. 

 ■'' Catholic Science Notes, May 14, 1953. 



