Career Opportunities
Basic Research Means Challenging the Unknown Study, work, frustration, and success add up to basic research
ERVIN R. VAN ARTSDALEN, Chairman, Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville The concept of what constitutes basic (or fundamental) research seems to depend upon the person involved, whether he be industrial executive, research director, legislator, director of a government bureau or agency, or the research scientist himself. Indeed, it varies greatly among scientists. A university professor may have one idea, a young scientist beginning his industrial career another, and the seasoned industrial scientist still another. To learn whether a career in basic research holds promise for the kind of life a man wants for himself and his family, he should inquire what this term connotes in each major kind of establishment in which he might be employed. It is also important to consider the avenues for advancement as well as the opportunities to transfer to other types of work in the event that he should desire to do so. A few people assume that basic research can be taken to mean work done by a research scientist simply because he wants to do it, without any regard to the needs or wishes of the organization which employs him. Such an assumption seems unrealistic. Certainly, reasonable men will not worry that the distinction between basic and applied research is fuzzy, any more than they will worry that the demarcation between physics and chemistry has become diffuse. Perhaps I may propose that basic research is scientific work done for the purpose of uncovering new knowledge, developing new concepts, and extending theories about the universe and its contents. Basic research may be concerned about knowledge for its own sake or because it is required for the solution of some applied problem. Just because the work is basic doesn't mean it need have no ultimate practical value. Basic research may be done for the pure joy of learning. Much of it is, but this should not mean purposeless wandering or dabbling of a dilettante. In fact, we should always conduct research with some goal in mind. Not that we know what the results will be, or even just what we are looking for, but there should be a purposefulness about our work, a motivating desire that it shall be nontrivial and relevant to other knowledge and understanding. Not all will agree with these concepts, but I consider them to be worthy goals of all scientific work. 16A
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It is important that the young man contemplating a career in basic science should know what the requisites are for such work. He should appreciate something of the frustrations as well as the rewards. He should understand what the limitations are and where some of the avenues may lead him in the future—how broad the fields are, what opportunities exist. Essentially, there are five types of establishment where one may carry on basic chemical research—universities, endowed private institutes, hospitals, certain government laboratories, and industry. Sometimes other terms are used in place of basic research, for example in industry, exploratory research and long-range research. Whether these mean basic research depends upon the viewpoint of the company management. Exploratory may merely mean "Let's have a quick look to see if anything practical will turn up." Many young Ph.D.'s, just out of graduate school, start their industrial careers in the company's basic research laboratories. Such a start does not necessarily mean that they will remain in the basic research areas indefinitely. What happens can be determined by their own interests, but also, and importantly, by changes in emphasis or philosophy on the part of company management. This kind of determinism is necessary. No scientist going into a research project in industry should consider that he has a sacrosanct assignment for an indefinitely long period of time. Certainly, no research director can promise such a thing. Challenges of Basic Research Imagination, broad knowledge, and sound training are certainly requisites for productive research, whether basic or applied. Chemists occasionally make names for themselves in basic research without having earned the doctorate. But the fund of knowledge is so vast and the complexity of modern chemistry so great that most chemists will necessarily earn the Ph.D. They will usually put in several years beyond this on postdoctoral fellowships or other research appointments to prepare themselves for careers in basic chemical research.
To most of us the challenges of basic research are the challenges of the unknown, of understanding nature, of discovery. Frequently the story of the explanation of some basic chemical property, whether it involves determination of a structure or reaction mechanism, a new synthesis, a drug action, behavior of some material under very unusual conditions—or a host of other things—can read like a spellbinding detective story. The chase for the elusive bits of information and their fitting into the pattern of the over-all puzzle can be more exciting than all else to the research worker. The important decision of what basic research problem to study will usually be made by the research man himself, but he will be strongly influenced by many factors. The general area will be determined by the nature of the position which the man holds. Each establishment generally will want the research work to have relevance to its particular interests. This requirement is especially true of industry, which, though it may support wide-ranging basic research, nevertheless will usually want it to be in areas somehow connected with the fields of its actual or potential business enterprises. Choice of the specific research problem is important. Several of us, who were then young assistant professors, once asked one of ^>ur greatest scientists, a Nobel laureate who had been tremendously productive in several fields, "How do you choose your problems so that they always are so relevant and so valuable?" He replied, "I just work on things that are interesting and simple." "And suppose they aren't simple?" we asked, because many of them didn't seem especially simple to us. "I don't work on them," he said. We persisted, "But suppose they are very interesting, but not simple?" "Well, then I just think about them a long time until I see how they are simple, and then I do them."
Frustrations of Basic Research If the challenges of basic research are great, so are the frustrations very real. The research scientist, basic or applied, is confronted in the laboratory or office by long, hard hours, often of pure drudgery, of taking wrong pathways, blind alleys, and of being scooped. Success in research is compounded of a bit of genius or sparkling intuition, plus quite a lot of luck, and a great deal of hard, hard work. One of the most annoying things that the research worker in basic science faces, and especially in industry, is being called off what he considers to be the most important problem in the world to solve some other problem of practical immediacy. Every research worker must justify his work to some boss. When funds and people are scarce, basic scientific research tends to suffer. The basic scientist must often make do with what he can scrimp together from odds and ends. In short, basic research has most of the frustrations of other kinds of jobs, plus a few rather peculiar to itself. The practical man, the business man, the legislator, the boss, and certainly the average layman, won't understand you. To many, basic research means just about the opposite of what you think it means. Opportunities abound. Basic research in industry may, and often does (indeed, this is the goal), lead to development, engineering, and new products or processes which may be expected to show a profit for the company. If the
research man is so inclined, often he can work right along with the project as it evolves from basic to applied research, to development and, finally, production. If he has managerial talents, he may progress in research to being group leader, section head, research director and, if he is so inclined, branch out into other managerial positions.
Personal and Professional
Progress
Many top executives in industry come up through the basic research laboratories. Because there are generally fewer such positions, advancement within the managerial structure in universities, government laboratories, and research institutes tends to be more limited than in industry. During the next few years there is certain to be a great increase in the number of positions available for university and college faculty, who will pursue basic scientific research. Parenthetically, may I note that basic chemical research in a university means not only discovery of new facts, principles, and theory, but also especially the method by which we in the sciences, both basic and applied, learn our business. It is tutorial, graduate level teaching. Monetary rewards tend to be somewhat less in basic research than in certain other areas of chemistry. But they are increasing both relatively and absolutely each year. A competent basic research chemist can make a very comfortable living for himself and his family; he would probably not earn much more in another area of chemistry. If you have loved every minute of your quest for the Ph.D., the intensive study, long hours in the laboratory, library searching, the drudgery of data-taking, the endless discussions, the frustration of a synthesis which failed, the thrill of discovering something new, but the bumbling realization that what you have learned, what you have accomplished, is only a small flotsam upon a vast sea that leads always to new and unknown mysteries, then perhaps a career in basic science is really for you. And maybe, if you like basic science and at the same time teaching, you will find that a university career which combines both is what you want. Here you will teach not only what is already known but introduce young students to the joy of discovering new knowledge.
Dr. Ervin R. Van Artsdalen is John W. Mallet professor of chemistry and chairman of the department at the University of Virginia. He is a native of Doylestown, Pa., and received a B.S. in chemistry from Lafayette CoU lege in 1935, and an A.M. in 1939 and Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1941 from Harvard. Dr. Van Artsdalen has also taught at Lafayette and Cornell, and has been a research group leader at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Before coming to the University of Virginia in 1963, he was assistant director of research at Union Carbide's Parma Research Center. Dr. Van Artsdalen is a member of ACS, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the author of more than 40 technical papers and is on the editorial board of The Journal of Physical Chemistry. MAY
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