OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 169 



people. You just cannot turn out Ph. D.'s in oceanography overnight. 

 It takes time and so our program rate of growth is based essentially on 

 how rapidly, given the proper effort, we believe that young people 

 can be trained and turned out into good oceanographers capable of 

 working on the oceans. 



We are going to be faced during the years ahead with some very 

 critical problems that will require a vast amovmt of knowledge and the 

 exact kind of knowledge that will be required simply is not predictable. 

 What you have to do is just go out and learn all that you can about 

 the ocean floor and so forth. 



I think a very good example of how a field of scientific endeavor 

 that did not occupy very much attention has suddenly blossomed forth 

 been going along for years and years and years on rather small 

 budgets. They have learned a great deal considering the budgets that 

 gets. They have learned a great deal considering the budgets that 

 they have had at their disposal. Suddenly we are faced with a whole 

 problem of detecting underground nuclear explosions. This requires 

 a knowledge of seismology greatly exceeding that which we now have, 

 one which is obtainable but nevertheless exceeding that which we have. 

 Had we had the foresight to back up seismology, let us say 5 years 

 ago, we would not be in this position today and I fear that, unless we 

 do take a vigorous step forward in the marine sciences, we are going to 

 be faced with, let us say, the necessity for another crash program and 

 crash programs, as all of us know, are terribly wasteful and expensive 

 in terms of both manpower and expenditure of funds. 



Therefore, this program, as we look upon it, is really a minimum 

 program. We realize that there are many changes that will perhaps 

 be necessary and desirable but we do believe that the scope of the over- 

 all program as outlined here is essential from the pomt of view of 

 the economy of your fisheries, from the point of view of adequate 

 exploitation of marine resources, and from the point of view of 

 military defense. 



I believe that that is all I have to say as a preliminary. 



Mr. Miller. Doctor, one of the significant things you tell us, I 

 believe, is the fact that we are going to need trained manpower in 

 the field which is not available at the moment. 



Wliat can this committee or any committee of Congress do to meet 

 that challenge? We have through the Science Foundation money 

 available for scholarships and that sort of thing. Whose responsi- 

 bility is it going to be to try and get the young men into this field? 



Dr. Brown. That is an extremely difficult question. 



Mr. Miller. It is a difficult one. That is why I am asking it. It 

 is the thing that I think bothers all of us. We would like to have 

 your views on that as an editor and as an outstanding member of the 

 field of science. 



Dr. Brown. The National Science Foundation has rather a large 

 fellowship-scholarship program but it is handled in such a way that 

 it does not select any particular field of endeavor for favoritism, so to 

 speak. All applications for scholarships and fellowships are handled 

 on a competitive basis irrespective of the field that the person wishes to 

 enter. There is no mechanism at the present time for an impartial 

 group to say, "Well, we are lagging behind in this particular area. 

 We need more men in it. Therefore, we should provide more scholar- 

 ships in that particular area." 



