117 



Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 



Woods Hole, MA 02543 



Phone: (508) 548-1400 



Telex; 951679 



30 August 1993 



The Hon. Solomon P. Ortiz 

 Chedrmaji, Subcommittee on 



Oceanography, Gulf of Mexico, 



axid the Outer Continental Shelf 

 U.S. House of Representatives 

 Room 1334, Longworth House Office Building 

 Washington, D.C. 20515-6230 



Dear Mr. Ortiz: 



Thank you very much for your letter of 11 August 1993 (Xerox attached). I 

 much enjoyed talking to your subcommittee. 



With regard to the further questions that I have been asked (Xerox attached): 

 I have had in the past minimal problems interacting with federal agencies in generad, 

 amd DoD in particular, and this will probably be the Ccise for mamy academics 

 in the physical sciences. But there can be problems with paxticulEir agencies or 

 paxticulair programs. It is aJso true that the overall level of bureaucracy associated 

 with research has gotten higher and higher during my career, now spanning over 

 30 years. Surprisingly, the National Science Foundation has been at the forefront 

 of supporting large programs hke WOCE that have placed a heavy management 

 burden on scientists who are supposed to be focusing on research. This hais occurred 

 at the expense of projects with one or a few principal investigators, and is a trend 

 most academics woiild like to see reversed. Indeed, small projects were at the core 

 of the original NSF mission. Projects involving large management teams can be 

 carried out by the mission agencies. 



Sincerely, , 



WiUiam J. Schmitz, Jr. 

 Senior Scientist 

 Clzirk Professor 



WJS/bpg 

 End. 



