EDUCATION
AEC Facility Taking Part in Graduate Program University of California, Davis, and Lawrence Radiation Laboratory jointly start department of applied science The University of California has officially inaugurated a department of applied science, designed to train "scientist-engineers for the nuclear age." The department offers master's and Ph.D. degrees under the college of engineering at the university's Davis campus, carrying out instruction and using facilities at both Davis and the Atomic Energy Commission's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore. Chairman of the new department is Dr. Edward Teller, associate director of the Lawrence laboratory. As described by Dr. Teller, the applied science program is the first graduate program leading to master's and Ph.D. degrees to be set up as a department in an AEC facility. Its purpose, he adds, will be to train people able to bridge the gap between the basic nuclear sciences and their application through development and engineering. There are areas where this need now exists or is foreseeable. The Davis-Livermore program will emphasize those areas to which the facilities at Livermore can contribute. These include plasma physics, reactor
engineering, behavior of materials, and computing technology. The first part of the program is a nonthesis master's degree program, a prerequisite to the Ph.D. program. The master's program is based on six required courses and a minimum of 24 units. Twelve units can be outside the department of applied science, but no more than six of these can be research courses. The master's degree work is broad in mathematics and the physical sciences, including physics and chemistry, but it is not quite traditional in the way these subjects are taught. The changes in individual courses are not drastic, but the shaping of the curriculums is different. As an example, Dr. Teller points to quantum mechanics. This is taught as a standard course to physicists. Chemists get a similar course but with different emphasis. The applied science course is titled structure of matter. It emphasizes those parts of quantum mechanics most useful to development and engineering. Mathematics is similarly oriented and includes a course in computer applications.
DEDICATION. University of California's president Dr. Clark Kerr, Chancellor Emil Mrak, Dr. Edward Teller, LRL's Dr. John S. Foster, Jr., and Dr. Roy Bainer (left to right) help inaugurate department of applied science at the Davis campus 46
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Specialists. The Ph.D. program will produce specialists, requiring an original contribution in the student's field. But these will be specialists, Dr. Teller says, who can talk to other specialists in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and thus will carry on the prime job of application, development, and engineering. Livermore is one of four AEC centers for research in plasma physics. Its several experimental machines will be available for research into plasmas and controlled thermonuclear reactions. Computing has lately become a physical science, Dr. Teller says, with the use of computers extending research into areas where laboratory experiments are not possible. Livermore workers, for instance, have simulated melting on their LARC computer, followed the crystalline or noncrystalline state of a system, and measured pressures. Such studies are becoming increasingly useful in evolving new facts about physical phenomena, and suggesting new lines of experimentation. Livermore claims the largest collection of computer equipment except for what's in the hands of manufacturers. Other facilities which students will be able to use in research include a nuclear reactor, a cyclotron, and the Project Plowshare laboratories. For the Davis campus, the program gives its three-year old engineering school a boost. In the opinion of engineering dean Roy Bainer, the joint Davis-Livermore department puts Davis into technical fields it could not otherwise hope to enter for at least 10 years. The program now has 82 students enrolled; most are Livermore personnel participating on a part-time basis. Plans call for enrollment to reach about 250 in the next few years, with increasing numbers coming from those in undergraduate engineering and physical sciences at Davis.
Beckman, Bendix-Greenbrier, Consolidated Electrodynamics, F&M Scientific Corp., Foxboro, Honeywell, Mine Safety
D.C/s Major Universities Coordinate Graduate Programs Graduate study and research will be coordinated among Howard, Georgetown, George Washington, Catholic, and American universities, all in Washington, D.C. After three years of planning, presidents of the participating schools recently established a partnership for developing graduate faculties and facilities of each school to the best advantage to all. The presidents signing for their respective universities are (left to right): The Right Rev. Msgr. William J. McDonald, Catholic University; Dr. Hurst R. Anderson, American University; Dr. James M. Nabrit, Jr., Howard University; Very Rev. Edward B. Bunn, S.J., Georgetown University; and Dr. Thomas H. Carroll, George Washington University. A committee, with a representative from each school, will study needs of the programs and make recommendations. The committee is not an independent administrative agency, but a service body. Member institutions will maintain their individuality while voluntarily entering into arrangements through which they may all improve their graduate programs. The presidents agree that not every institution has every facility; some are stronger in one field than in another. Through
such cooperation, the 12,000 graduate students in the five schools will benefit from the strengths of each of the schools. Students can move from one institution to another to take advantage of a particular course or research facility. Degrees will be granted from the institution in which the student is registered. In some instances, faculty may move from one school to another or perhaps joint appointments will be made. Not all institutions will necessarily take part in all phases of the cooperative effort. While no one will predict what this effort will lead to, it will not lead to a single institution, the five presidents agree. Extension of the program to undergraduate training is unlikely, they point out, because there is no advantage at this level. Undergraduate classes are large and a faculty is needed at each of the institutions to handle them. But at the graduate level, where specialization is necessary and classes are small, cooperation and pooling of resources are desirable. Dr. Elmer West, an official of the American Council on Education, is executive secretary of the consortium, which will have its offices at Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
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Tney Agree All agree on MATHESONI These* leading instrument makers agree in
BRIEFS Three summer institutes in chemistry for college teachers of science, mathematics, and engineering have been added by the National Science Foundation since its original listing (C&EN, Dec. 30, 1963, page 36; Jan. 13, page 4 1 ) . The additions and the institute directors (all in chemistry departments) are: Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Dr. J. F. Christman; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Dr. H. D. Crockford; Oregon State University, Corvallis, Dr. M. B. Williams.
A two-year program leading to a master's degree in engineering will be started by Yale University's school of engineering in September 1964. The new curriculum will replace the current one-year master's in engineering program. It won't, however, affect master's and doctoral programs in engineering, which are oriented toward academic careers. The new program will emphasize systems analysis, design, and problem-solving, representing a type of "clinical experience" that has generally been ignored in recent developments in engineering education, the school says.
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