CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING
NEWS
APRIL
4,
1966
Industry Troubled by Academic Disinterest Du Pont v.p. says industry can challenge scientists, but must prove its own case Du Pont vice president Robert L. Hershey took his turn last week in Pittsburgh at countering the disinterest in industry that many feel exists—and perhaps is growing—in the academic community, particularly at the graduate level. Dr. Hershey spoke at the Awards Dinner during the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. He struck specifically at the view that industrial chemical research and development holds no challenge worthy of the scientist. Dr. Hershey is by no means the first to take to the platform on this score. Another is former ACS president C. S. Marvel, who dealt with the topic in his Perkin Medal address more than a year ago and again in January in Phoenix at the Awards Dinner during the ACS winter meeting (C&EN, Jan. 24, page 26). The problem certainly is not a new one. A skilled debater might argue that, like roast beef and cold peas, it is part of the standard fare on the banquet circuit. However, the ACS Committee on Chemistry and Public Affairs is concerned enough to have set up a subcommittee on the relationship between industry and education. The subcommittee says it is " . . . convinced that this relationship is seriously troubled by a lack of mutual understanding and cooperation." Part of the evidence, it says, is the problems that many companies have in recruiting and holding young Ph.D.'s. Speaker Hershey believes that industrial research and development offers the scientist "extremely attractive opportunities and challenges." He believes that it will continue to do so. But many who work in science and education, he contends, and particuDr. Hershey says at ACS dinner that industry must reach graduate students
l a r ^ ' r a d u a t e students, perceive only dimly these opportunities and challenges. Making the new generations of scientists see these very real challenges is a job that industry must do alone, Dr. Hershey believes. The universities, the professors, have problems of their own. Industry itself must devise and maintain means of communication with the graduate student. The attitude of the young scientist today has been shaped by a "complex interplay of cultural, economic, and political forces . . . ." But regardless of the origins of the situation, Dr. Hershey says, industry must look to the future. It must put its case better than it has in the past. It is likely to be an uphill struggle. Dr. Hershey urges that industry look more broadly at its policies on publishing the results of its research. Largely by publication does the research scientist achieve one of his chief rewards—recognition by his peers. That industry is on the defensive in this area was evident in Dr. Hershey's company at dinner. It included 14 winners of 1966 ACS awards for scientific merit; two of them work in industry.
Industry must also swim upstream in another sense. One of the main attractions alleged to exist for the scientist in the university is freedom to do research on the problems of his choice. Financial support for this research has come more and more from the Federal Government. And there is heavy pressure to accelerate the rate of growth of such support (see the Westheimer Report-C&EN, Nov. 29, 1965, page 72). One result would be to increase the number of university positions available to scientists who are inclined in that direction. To prove that it can challenge the research scientist, Dr. Hershey says, industry must do more than pour money into research facilities and salaries. It must not be shy about stating "boldly and clearly" the constraints of industrial research and development and the consequences of those constraints. The overriding constraint is that industrial R&D must produce results that ultimately can be converted into profits. One consequence is that every research project must be recognizably relevant to the company's business. A second consequence is that research alone is not enough; it must be followed by development. The first of these consequences is no bar to doing even the most exploratory research, Dr. Hershey says; and the second calls for talents fully equal to those required by research. But establishing its bona fides is only part of the job that industry must do. The other part is to learn to reach the coming generations of graduate students effectively and continuously. The best move here, Dr. Hershey believes, will be to expose "industry's most competent, experienced, qualified researchers to the student." ( One example is T. L. Cairns, director of research in Du Pont's central research department, who spent the first semester of the 1965-66 academic year as Regents' Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.) APRIL
4, 1966 C & E N
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