are available more readily in certain fields in which industry i s interested. In suggesting these debits and credits in the balance sheet of industrial research, I believe it becomes clear that there is a surplus in favor of more industrial re search in our engineering schools, pro vided i t is handled with proper safe guards. If I were to draw u p a set of principles or a code for the management of industrial research in educational institu tions, I would list t h e following:
Code for Sponsored
Research
T h e first of these guiding principles is that t h e primary purposes of an educa tional institution are to educate men and women and to increase knowledge and are not t o compete with industry in industrial or development research. M y second guiding principle is that sponsored industrial research should be closely related to t h e normal program and recognized objectives of the institution. It should involve only work which can be carried out with enthusiasm by the academic staff a n d it specifically should not be work which the staff would under take with reluctance a n d would be un related to their educational and profes sional programs., A member of a faculty should never be "assigned" to contract re search. I submit, further, that it is dangerous to permit sponsored research of any kind to provide special emoluments t o a few members of the staff w h e n other equally valuable members of t h e staff w h o happen not t o be working in t h e field of the sponsored research are left in an in ferior position w i t h respect t o compensa tion and other emoluments. Further more, development research should not be accepted except under special conditions where the project is urgently important and facilities for doing the work are not available elsewhere. M y third guiding principle is that im position of restrictions on publication of research results, either for secrecy or patent reasons, can become incompatible with the basic concept of an educational institution as a source and distributor of knowledge. Research contracts involv ing such restrictions, especially long-term or permanent restrictions, should be undertaken only for exceptional or emer gency reasons. N o arrangement should be permitted which could inhibit free and effective work b y the institution in a n y scholarly field. N o project should b e normally accepted unless it is open t o qualified students. In summary, I would emphasize that in working together, industry and the en gineering college must have a mutual understanding of each other's problems and then let enlightened self-interest govern their procedures. The engineering college must never compromise its educa tional standards. Industry has already shown a statesmanlike understanding of the importance that our educational in
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stitutions maintain their freedom and academic independence. As industry comes to our colleges with increasing frequency proffering funds for research, I believe that many hazards that may b e involved lie largely within the institutions themselves. I t is up t o our educational institutions t o manage this
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research with wisdom, with independence, and with strict adherence t o their edcuational ideals. If they can preserve the environment of scholarship and the com plete freedom of creative minds, then the industrial research they undertake can assuredly help to make our institutions increasingly strong.
. . .
Smith Named Dillebrand Prize Winner I s recognition f more than 20 years of research work which has contributed1 much to the fundamental knowledge ofr chemistry, Edgar Reynolds Smith, chief: of the physical chemistry section af thei National Bureau of Standards, Wash ington, D . C , was named winner of the* Hillebrand Prize a t a meeting of thei Chemical Society of Washington, a local sec tion of the ACS, F e b . 10. T h e award,, established in memory of W. F. Hille brand, famous for his contributions to• analytical chemistry, is awarded annually to a member of the section for a distin guished contribution to chemistry. Past recipients of the award have beenι selected on the basis of one or two signifi cant research works, but the general ex cellence of the research conducted b y Dr. Smith made it impossible for the nominat ing committee to select any single work. T h e citation for the award reads in part,, "in recognition of original work in physicalI chemistry, more especially contributionsj to electrochemistry and ebulliometry." The presentation of the award will be$ made at a special dinner meeting of theÎ section on March 10. As is the traditionι of the Hillebrand award, the principalI speaker o n this occasion is chosen b y the» recipient, and Dr. Smith has chosen his3 former professor and life-long friend, D u n can A. Maclnnes of the Rockefeller Insti tute for Medical Research. Dr. Smith's3 first research work, on transference num bers b y the moving boundary method, was3 done under Dr. Maclnnes while Dr. Smithι was a graduate student at Massachusettss Institute of Technology. Since that time his research efforts haveÎ been varied and fruitful, but he regardss with most favor the work he did on theî first preparation of heavy water under theÎ direction of E . W. Washburn, who was3 then chief of the chemistry division of theî Bureau of Standards. T h e work was ini tiated when the latter received notice3 that Urey had obtained spectroscopic evi dence of the existence of heavy hydrogen. Dr. Washburn then suggested the elec trolysis of water as a better method of ob taining heavy hydrogen than the handling5 of large volumes of gas, and Dr. Smith sett out to establish the correctness of the pos tulate. Seeking out a commercial plant that hadί several large electrolytic cells which had1
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1949
been in operation over a long period, Dr. Smith established that the density of water in these cells was greater b y 50 parts per million than the water initially used. H e then set up a series of experiments to show the progressive increase in density as electrolysis continued. Other fields in which he has published findings include: electrical conductance, electrode potentials, pH measurements, isotopic composition of waters from various sources, difference in atomic weight of oxygen from air and from water, boiling points, vapor pressure, boiling-point com position diagrams, water as a reference standard in ebulliometry, and, more re cently, polarography. His development of the twin quartz pyenometer method for measuring density made possible a ten fold increase in accuracy as compared to ordinary single pyenometer methods for measuring density. Born M a y 13,1897 in Wilmington, Del., where chemistry is a household word, D r . Smith has managed t o restrict his research activities to other geographic areas although he does admit coming close to returning after graduation from M I T in 1923 with a P h . D . H e also did his undergraduate work there and continued as a research associate until 1924 to work with Dr. Maclnnes. After two years as an as sistant professor of chemistry at Louisiana State University, he was brought t o the Bureau of Standards by Dr. Washburn as one of the first recruits for a newly founded research section in physical chemistry, He has received recognition for his work by appointment to several important committees including the Committee on Physicochemical D a t a of the International Union of Chemistry, the Committee on Tables of Constants of the I U C , and the National Research Council Committee on Physical Chemistry. H e has been active in ACS local section affairs, serving as president of the Washington Section in 1944. Extremely modest, Ren Smith is very popular among his colleagues at the Bureau of Standards as is Mrs. Smith, who is chief clerk of the chemistry division. But during the traditional "R" months, his popularity soars to new heights. I t is suspected that the private oyster beds Ιο cated at his farm on the Potomac River near Chesapeake B a y are the reason.
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