EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 133 



requirements. Your panel should be of considerable assistance to Lieutenant 

 Commander Alexander in reviewing the research ship requirements. 



4. The Federal Council for Science and Technology is anticipating that the 

 fiscal year 1962 proposed national program and budget for oceanography will be 

 available for review about August 2, 1960. The research portion of the national 

 program to be considered by your panel is possibly the most critical element of 

 the national program. It is requested that I be advised after the first meeting 

 of your panel when a report to the Interagency Committee on Oceanography 

 will be available for consideration. 



Signed James H. Wakelin, Jr. 



I have taken the considerable time to read this letter because I 

 feel it conveys, concisely, the objectives of the Research Panel as 

 well as illustrates the interrelationships of the various panels that 

 have been established by the ICO. 



Before proceeding further, I would like to emphasize to you the 

 importance of the activities of the Research Panel especially in the 

 development of the national oceanographic program by the ICO. 

 The research portion of this program represents the nucleus about 

 which the remainder of the national program is constructed. 



For example, research and survey ships are not built just to increase 

 our research oceanographic fleet, nor are laboratories constructed, 

 students educated, nor surveys carried out for their own end. All of 

 these activities are undertaken for the common purpose of more fully 

 understanding the oceans in order that we might better utilize this 

 vast resource. It is the function of the Research Panel to coordinate 

 and guide the various agencies research programs and it is these 

 programs which provide for this better understanding of the seas. 

 The coordination and guidance must be sound, and the peripheral 

 programs, such as surveys, instrumentation, ship construction and 

 education must be in consonance with the research programs, if we 

 are to have an effective national oceanographic program. 



To carry out the important functions of this Panel, the membership 

 was carefully selected from the agencies suggested in Secretary 

 Wakelin 's letter. Particular attention was given to obtaining members 

 each of whom had an intimate knowledge of his agency's research 

 program. Since its original formation, the Panel has been modified 

 to include members from the Smithsonian Institution, the Hydro- 

 graphic Office and an observer from the Committee on Oceanography 

 of the National Academy of Sciences. 



Present members of the Panel are: myself, as Chairman from the 

 Office of Naval Research, Mr. B. E. Olson from the U.S. Navy 

 Hydrographic Office, Mr. V. Brock, from the Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries, Dr. H. B. Stewart, Jr., from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, Dr. R. G. Bader from the National Science Foundation, 

 Dr. I. E. Wallen from the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. F. A. 

 Chace, Jr., from the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, 

 observer from the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on 

 Oceanography. 



The Panel carries out its functions by holding meetings at which 

 past assignments are reviewed and future activities assigned as the 

 responsibility of individual members. This has proved to be an effec- 

 tive method whereby the workload can evenly be distributed and the 

 results collated by the entire Panel. Interactions with other ICO 

 panels are achieved through an overlapping of memberships, thereby 

 enabling the Panel to keep abreast with the activities of the others. 



