Preparing Chemists t o Meet Society's Future Needs Report of Panel Ill Franklin A. Long, Chairman T i i s panel charged to study "l'repariug Chemists to Meet Society's 13ut,ureKeeds" was sharply aJvare that it was meeting at a time vhen the concerns and priorities of virtually the entire world are undergoing rapid change and when both the role of scierice and the goals of technology are under serious quest.iorr. I n the developed natious and specifically in the United States, growing couecrns relate especially to t,he broad problem of the quolity of life. There are deep concerus about the problems that stem from the ever-increasing population, about the polluLion of the environment, about the decline of urban areas, and about the social and economic inequkies that persist among various groups of our citizens. I t is widely appreciated that, our afflucnt civilizatiou depends very direct.1~on the scientific and teclinological advances of the past several decades. But there is also increasing awareness that, these advances have all too ofteu been in a context of exploiting our environmeut rather thau preserving and nurturing it.. Tliesc concerns arc shared in different dcgrcc by all of the developed nations of the ~vorld;but a t the global level there are two ndditiorial concerns of great aud perhaps overriding import. One is concero about world preoccupation with dpfense and military affairs \vhich has brought the military budgets of the world to t,he staggering tot,al of $200 billion per year. The second global concern is about the widening gap in standard of living between the developed and the less developed nations of the world. Of these coucerns, the second is almost surely of longcr-range import, since therc probably can be no t,rue peace among peopks whose shares in the ~vorld'sgoods differ so widely. Responses to these mauy concerns are urgently sought for and urgently needed. T o be adequate, they will necessarily involve great expenditure of effort, on the part of the scholars, industrialists, and goveruments of the entire world. And in many cases the solutions will involve not less technology, but more. This is evident for the underdeveloped nations since technology is their principal hope for a better life. But, even for the developed nations, the new directions that, will result from the n e v priorities vill probably uot involve a movement away from technology but rather the development of more responsive and more responsible technology. The clear implication is that the world will need not fewer scielitists and engineers, but more. A central requirement, however, is for increased numbers of a new breed of scientist, one more sharply aware
I
Members o f the P a n e l
FRANKLIN A. LONG (Chairman) Cornell University W. 0.BAKER Bell Telephone Labaratorie~ WILLIAMBERANEK California Institute of Technology TOSE BOLIVAR Sociedad Quirnica de Mexico H. C. CLARK University of Western Ontario FRED S. DAINTON University of Odord CARL DJERASSI Stanford University THOMASFONTAINE National Science Foundation E. A. GEE E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Ca
DONALD HORNIG Brown University JAMESP. LODGE,JR. Natimal Center for Atmospheric ltesearch MICHELMAGAT Physico-Chimie des 1lavu1mement.s Faculte des Sciences France JAMESMORGAN Cilliioruin Institute of Technology MARTINA. PAUL Nat,i"nal Academy of University of Rlichigml ROBERT WEST University of Wisconsin
J
of the world's problems, more willirig to n-orlc toward their solution, and more capable of doing this in collaboration with thc social scientists and liumanists \vho must also be involved. I n this connection, 11-e point out. a need to involve far more women in scientific careers as teachers, research ~vorkers,and technicians. Their natural abilities have scaraely been tapped by a field which offers, or ought t o offer, a u-ide variety in choice of specific employment and in intellectual satisfaction. R o l e of C h e m i s t r y and C h e m i s t s Chemists and the chemical industry are often charged with responsibilit,y for many of the world's urgent problems, and there is some, if limited, justice to this charge. Some of the exploitation of our laud and our mountains can be charged to a search for chemical materials for the world's industry. Some of thc 11-orld's pollutiou specifically results from operations of the chemical industry. One can even argue that the rapid population increase and indeed the pollution and wastes that. affluence has brought are the consequence of the success of chemotherapy in health care and success of the chemical control of agriculture. These latter effects have been incidental to the search for bettcr standard of living, and have mostly come about as unexamined and unintended side effects. Hence, withVolume 48, Number I , January 1971
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Prafetror Franklin A. Long lrightl, Cornell University, Chairman of the Panel on "Preparing Chemists to Meet Society's Future Needs" and Dr. Martin A. Paul, Notional Academy of Science, a member of the Panel.
o u t in a n y w a y castigating t h e chemistry o f t h e past, o n e c a n still argue t h a t for t h e f u t u r e a narrow t,echnological v i e w ~ v i lnl o t do. More fundamentally, ~ v l i a t these c o m m e n t s really point t o is chemistry's central role i n m a n ' s search for b e t t e r control o f his environment. Cliemistry i s t h c science o f molecules, o f tlieir syntlresis, their modificat i o n , and their utilization. A n d in t h e m o s t basic sense i t i s t h e modification o f t h e a t o m s and molecules of t h e ~ v o r l dt h a t has produced t h e n e w materials, t h e n e w drugs, t h e n e w fibers t h a t cliaracterize m o d e r n civilization. It. i s equally certain t h a t , as ~ v esearch for a more responsive technology w i t h greater atlent* t o a halance o f nature and more concern for the q u a l ~ t y of l i f e , chemistry \d b e centrally involved. It. will m o s t probably b e chemical agents t h a t IT-ill give t o society n e w and wider choices for adequate birth control. C h e m i s t r y will inescapably play a central role in t h e control o f pollution wlrich n o w so troubles t h e nations o f t h e ~ v o r l d . Anotlier w a y o f saying t h i s is t o n o t e t h a t t e c h ~ i o l o g y i n general, and cliemical technology i n particular, f u n d a m e n t a l l y provide t h e world w i t h altenlatives. Spntlretic fibers provide alternatives t o t h e natural
RECOMMENDATIONS For the Educational CommunityMojor efforts in curriculum development and in teacher training must b e made for the teaching o f science in the schools o f the world so thot both primory and secondary educotion may reflect the broader view we have been odvocafing. Chemistry deportments in the colleges and universities must broaden their curricula t o include efforts to make chemistry students aware o f chemists' role in society and to sensitize them t o society's needs. The University graduate schools can and should give assistance in three areas: They can aid in the development o f more flexible graduate programs in which concern for society's problems plays a more explicit port; they can oid in the development o f mixed degree fields which permit experimentation with such useful multidisciplinary possibilities as, tor example, chemistry and environment and chemical ecology: and to the extent they influence postdoctoral education, they can encourage the use o f the postdoctoral period as a time in which science professionals can either shift their field into environmentally-oriented areas or broaden their knowledge in these areas. The complex, mony-headed system o f adult education should give particular attention to the problem o f broadening the appreciation o f practicing chemists, chemicol engineers, ond other scientists for the needs o f society and for the opportunities for scientists to contribute to their solution both within their field and as a component o f mulfidisciplinory attocks. 4
The agencies with explicit responsibility for sociol problem areas, such a s HUD and DOT, should recognize the central importance o f chemistry to the solution o f these problems, and should support applied research in chemistry as well as encourage multidisciplinary research in which chemists participate. The agencies particularly concerned with foreign policy, AID and the State De~artment. should give - increosed recognition to the central needs o f developing nations for technoloa~ ", tronsfer and for education o f scientists and engineers. The many state and federal regulatory agencies, the Food and Drug Administrotion, the U.S. Deportment o f Agriculture, and the like, hove a special responsibility to permit and indeed encourage research on new responses to sociefol problems while at the some time protecting the health and safety o f the groups with which they are concerned. 4
To the Agencies thot Employ ChemistsThese employers o f chemists must develop an explicit commitment to assistance b y chemistry in the solution o f societal problems. It must demonstrate this commitment b y ensuring that its chemistry employees and faculfies ore encouraged t o participate in the society-based problem-solving efforts, ond when successful ore properly rewarded. In view o f a certoin need for mare and more kinds o f scientists for the solution o f these world societal problems, employers o f scientists should moke porticulor e f forts t o employ addition01 women. 4
To Science Based Government Agencies-
To the American Chemical Saciety-
The support agencies such as NSF and HEW con greatly increase the capobilifies o f chemists in these societal areas b y providing for new programs ond more funds in environmental ond multidisciplinary areas, while ot the some time not neglecting reiearchin the boric sciences.
The American Chemical Society, and specifically the Division o f Chemical Education, must assume a responsibility for the further studies, encouragement, and fund raising which is essential to get these many specific programs solidly underway.
18 / lournol o f Chemical Education
fibers whose production has all too often involved exploitation of the natural ecology. Plastics provide alternatives to vood and to metals. If we are to control our pollution and if v e are more broadly to make the transition from exploiting our environmellt to managing it in a nearly steady stat,e, we will necessarily search for the alternatives that chemical technology can provide. T o the less developed nations of the vorld, the urgent problem is to satisfy the elementary needs of their peoples for more food, better health, and more amenities. Here, too, chemist~ymust play a role, just as it has in bringing the developed nations to their current position. . One can strongly hope that in performing its crucial role in the developing nations, chemistry can be more sharply aware of the broader implications of development and CXI be more tl~oughtfularid responsive to the potential side effects of its technology. One can even hope that. with a more enlightened teclinology, the developing nations may avoid some of the serious errors that have plagued the rest of the world. I t is thesc scvernl points that support our belief that. the world of the future will need not less chemistry, but more-and that the role of the chemical industry will remain as it has been in thc past. The problem, then, is to maintain the thrust and central use of chemistry and chcmical technology but to do it in ways that, respond to the changing priorities of the world. Preparing Chemists for Future Needs With a t least a partial vision of societ.yls futurc needs and priorities and with a partial understanding of the role of chemistry and cl~emicalt cclinology in developing our current society and responding to these new needs, we turn to the p:irticular question of preparing chemists (and we explicitly xis11 to include chemical engineers in this category) to meet society's future needs. As a first question v e may ask, "Who 'sly the chemists whose preparation concerns us?" There are three groups of particulnr importance. The first are the promising potential chemists who are now studying science and introductory chemistry in the schools of the world. The question of who among them will commit themselves to chemistry, and for what reasons, is of central importance to the future. A second group of concern is those students in our colleges and universities and graduate schools who have made the commitment to chemistry and are now involved in t,heir advanced studies. The third group is the great body of chemist,^ now actively pract,icing t,heir profession. I n this group we include not only the indust,rial chemists and chemical engineers but also the chemical faculty of our schools and colleges,.a group which is of central importance in accelerating the education changes which we believe are needed. It is important that we also identify the audience to whom our remarks are addressed, and again there are three targets. The first is the educational system which is concerned with the teaching of the potential and the actual chemists. The second audicnce is the groups who will be involved with the support and utilization of the chemists of the future: t,he chemical industry, defined broadly, the government,al agencies which support chemical research as well as thosc which develop t,he many applied multidisciplinary programs
that involve chemistry. The third, and conceivably the most important group to whom these comments are addressed, is the practicing chemists themselves and, as their official representative, the American Chemical Society and the other professional chemical societies of the world. Only if the chemists of the world deeply feel the need for change and are deeply convinced of the urgency of society's problems will any recommendations for change be effective. We can now come quickly to the heart of the new directions which we feel are required for the preparation of future chemists by listing the qualities which we think will ideally characterize the chemists of the future. I n delineating these characteristics we are sharply aware that they \rill not be shared in equal measure by all chemists and that there may be excellent reasons why in mauy cases they will be minimized or even ignored by individual chemists. Even so, some vision of the ideal man is useful as a goal and a challenge. Our ideal chemist, then, would have the following characteristics 1) First and foremast, he would be an able and efleclive chemist,, trained ill the intricacies of his science and efleclivc in applying his ktiowledge. 2 ) He would be concerned with the application of ehernist,ry. He would be cmstnntly aware t h a t i t is as applied science nnd as technology t h a t chemidry will have ils impact O N t h e wodd. 3) He would he sensitive t o society's chai~gingneeds and new priorities, ill pnrlieolw, the urgent, pl.ohlems of t,he d e velopiglg nations. 4 ) Recognizing these meds and priorit,ies, he woold feel n pers o m l commilment to assist in their solot.ion. 6 ) He wunld be t,rained and elTed.ive i n the mr~ll.idiseiplit~nt~y problem-solving which will increasingly he needed. 6) He would be capable of and willing to cumm~nicntcto his fellow citizens about his science and about its role in solving the world's problems.
One important reason for spelling out t,his list of charact,eristics a t some lengt,h is to emphasize t,he degrce to which t,he typical chemist of today (ourselves included) falls short of fulfilling these characterist~ics. Far too often the current-day chemist is too content to practice his profession narrowly, with too. little conccrn and professioual interest in socictal problems, \vit,h low competence in communicat.ing to others ahout his science and with negligible capability t,o participate in effective multidisciplinary research. It is ironic and sad that the academic chemists of our panel are persuaded that tthese indictments apply in full measure to themselves and quite generally to the academic chemists of our miljor colleges and universit,ies. We emphasize these unhappy facts only because we wish st,rongly to make the point that the problem of producing the new chemists will not be an easy one. It will only be done if many important professiorral groups change their ways to the extent that many strongly entrenched ideas and priorities are greatly modified. This picture of the "ideal future chemist" and of the problems which face us in ~bt~aining him have major implications for important groups of our community and it is to t,hese major implications which \vc now turn. The most obvious of these implications relates to t,he needed responses from the educ&tion:rl systems of thc world. I n its broadest form the implication is simply that the teaching of chemistry must include thoughtful and inspiring considerat~ior~s of the uses of chemistry, Volume 48, Number I , January 1971
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of the social impact of chemical technology, and of the necessity of producing sensitive and broadly responsive chemists. At the school level, in the training of students in the critical years of from thirteen to sixteen when most career decisions are made, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to teach not only science but the implications of science and the opportunities for scientists to respond to world problems. The oppo~tunityis to produce students ~ h will o opt for or against a science career with a broader vision of what science means and what it can do. Hopefully science in general, and chemistry in particular, can thereby be seen a8 an area of opportunity for people with a long-range vision and a social conscience. The implications of this broadened view of the ideal chemist apply with particular sharpness to the colleges and universities. I t is here that the specialized and advanced aspects of chemistry are taught to students, and it is here t,hat their attitudes of mind as professionals are most directly shaped. A common response to t,he need for inculcat,ingmore social awareness within these chemistry students is to urge that they be encouraged to take courses in sociology, psychology, etc. We submit that, this, though interesting and useful, is far from enough. It is from within their own chemistry departments that students' strongest motivat,ions will come, and especially through t,he ideas and actions of their professors. And it is within chemistry departments that appreciation of and training in mukidisciplinary research might be most successfully developed. These new interdisciplinary programs not only call for changed attitudes among t,he chemistry faculties of the colleges and universities; they also demand a far deeper knowledge and appreciation of societ,yls prohlems and of ways to attack them. To instill these in the many faculty chemists involved vill not be easy. Faculty seminars and faculty participation in multidisciplinary research programs are strongly indicated. Formal summer training programs are also surely required, and we urge their prompt analysis and eventual implementation. With major effort on the part of our colleges and universities, one can envisage these new programs becoming installed and effective. But what about the already practicing chemist,^? Who will teach them and give them some appreciation of t,hese broader needs? First the colleges and universities need to give this kind of teaching a much higher priorit,y than t,hey now do; their effort,^ in adult educat,ion have been far too lit,tle and too late. The second group that must he concerned with this broader view of what a chemist is, is t,he professional societies of chemists, in t,he United States the American Chemical Society. If it is import,ant t,hat chemists be aware-and we believe it is import,ant-of opportunities for chemistry to help t,he developing nations of the world, this should he reflected in an American Chemical Society program directed toward this end. If i t is important t,hat chemists he'more broadly appreciative of the social implications of chemistry and of the opportunities for chemists to help in solving problems of concern to society, the ACS must play a major role. The Short Course Program of t,he ACS, for example, could be greatly broadened to include subjects bearing on such problems and multidisciplinary in character. We are persuaded that, with 20 / Journal o f Chemical Education
the strong approval of its members, the ACS will not only respond to these opportunities but will itself take the initiative. There are important implications also for the employers of chemists-and here we explicitly include college and university administrations. If chemists are to change themselves and their priorities in the substantial ways we are suggesting, it must be in context of the approval of the organizations for which they work. This means more than lip service to "good ideals." It implies explicit recognition of the importance of serious concern for society's problems and explicit reward for good efforts on those problems. To be quite specific, one cannot expect young academic faculty members to accept these new priorities and to change their own without explicit approval from their department; indeed, without this approval, students will find singularly unpersuasive the precepts, new attitudes, and example of their faculty. Similarly, one cannot expect an industrial chemist or a fresh PhD to train himself in the chemistry of the developing nations and to commit himself to a two or three year leave of ahsence to work in these countries without the explicit recognition of the importance of the effort by his present or future employer. From this last viewpoint, what we are really talking about is necessary changes not only in the minds and hearts of individual chemists but in the entire complex chemistry establishment. With these several suggestions we have completed the central phase of our report. However, to be of use, these general admonitions for change must be joined with recommendations sufficiently pointed and specific that individuals and groups can see clearly what they should do. Hence, we now turn to a list of specific points. I n making these recommendations, we are conscious that we have given inadequate study to many of the details and, further, that in many cases more extensive study will be required ta produce effective and specific programs for action. Even so, we hope that these somewhat tentat,ive statements will illustrate the kind of programs that we have in mind. Specific Recommendgtions
RiIost of the recommendations which follow will concern themselves ~ 6 t the h impact of new social demands on chemists and chemistry and with ways to produce the new breed of chemists. But before making them, we must enter a most important caveat: that chemistry is, after all, a science. I t is a science with both basic and applied components, and it,s lifeblood is research. Only continued research will ensure that chemical understanding *ill progress and be able to respond not only to society',~problems in t,he immediate future but to the longer-range future problems that we can as yet only speculate about. Hence our recommendations should be thought of as additions to the current activities in chemistry, not as subtractions. Recommendations for the Educational Community 1) Major efforts in corsiculdm development and in teacher training must be made for the teaching of science in the schools of t,he world so that both p r i m a ~ yand secondary edncntian may reflect the broader view we have been advocating. Every analysis of the teaching of science has concluded that the mast important single faotor in effective teaching is the capability and quality of the teacher. I n the present inshanee this implies the need for
teachers who are not only trained to have n broad vision of the capabilities and responsibilities of science, but who are also imbued with a philosophy that gives high priority to society's needs.
2) Chemistry departments in the colleges nnd universities mnst broaden their nnrrimdx t o include efi'orls tu 111i~ke chemistry students aware of chemist? roles in society, and to sensitize them to society's needs. This single recommendation implies the need for many specific programs. I t implies more consideration of society's problems in elemenlnry chemis11.y cowses. 11, s~lggests the need for specific courses for chemislry majors in which the oses of chernisbry and the needs nf soriety art? joirrlly :umlymrl. Training in mnltidisciplinary reienrnh can he tnnght. hy uso of special projects or oltoumtively by nse of cxsr: stnciics t h a t illnstrale t,he concrete m y 3 in which science nnd technology interact with the real wol.ld. 3) The university gmdunte schools can m ~ d~;hooldgive sssistnnce in t,hree areas: (a) they cat, :lid in tho dcvelupmetrt of more flexible graduate programs in which cnncevn f o t ~ s o e i e l ~prohlems ~'s plays s more explicit. part; ( b ) they can aid in the development of mixed degree fieLds whir.h permit expwimentalion with such itsei,d mnltidiseiplinary pwsihilitier as, for example, Chemistry nnd the Environn~er,t,and Chcmiral Ecok,gv; (c) lo tho exten! the,v infloance posldocloral edncnlion, they can eneonrage the me of the postdoctol.sl period as s timc in which science prafessionsls can either shift their field intu e~lvironme~rtallv-nrierrted areas or broaden their knowledre in these nrens. 1; worldne towa1.d
allernatives and to peimit easier transilions nmang fields
4) The complex, many-headed system of adult education should give parli~nlm.attention to (he pn,blems of hrondotring t h e appreciati
