Brains & Prestige

As part of its program to step up the U.S. effort in science, the Administration moved to give its scientific forces more brains and more prestige. From Gettysburg came the announcement that the Science Advisory Committee, heretofore an adjunct of the Office of Defense Mobilization, will move its offices directly into the White House. At the same time, the committee of twelve, headed by Columbia Physicist Isidor Rabi, will take on five new members.

Like their colleagues, four of the new additions are top-rank men of science: Caltech's Physics Professor R. F. Bacher, Harvard's Nobel Prizewinning Physicist E. M. Purcell, University of California's Livermore Laboratory Director Herbert York, Harvard Chemistry Professor George B. Kistiakowsky. The fifth new member, Lieut. General (ret.) James Harold Doolittle, is a notable all-round man --engineer (doctor of science, M.I.T., 1925), topflight air commander in World War II, executive (a director and vice president of Shell Oil Co.). and one of the clearest voices in the field of defense. M.I.T.'s Dr. James R. Killian, who is also a member of the committee, still remains the presidential eyes and ears on the subject. But as a presidential committee, the scientists will be able to deal more directly with the President, and will be able to approach the Pentagon and Congress with more authority and more knowledge.

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