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policy, since the Foundation itself will be able to select more wisely than we can now the problems of greatest importance at any period of time.

4. With regard to research activities in connection with matters relating to the national defense, we recommend that the bills be changed to permit the transfer out of the Foundation of any research which requires security classification. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote the progress of fundamental research. Investigations which serve this purpose will not need to be classified. Those which do require classification can frequently be better handled by other agencies. We therefore recommend that section 15 (1) be amended to read as follows:

"The Foundation, after consultation with the Secretary of Defense, and in accordance with such national policies as may be established by Congress, shall establish such regulations and procedures as it deems proper for the security classification of information or property having military significance in connection with scientific research under this act, and for the proper safeguarding of any information or property so classified, or for the transfer of such research to an appropriate other agency."

5. The present bills provide for transfer of the wartime National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel to the Foundation. That roster, however, is dead. We therefore suggest that the following statement replace the present section 15 (j) of H. R. 12:

"The Foundation shall establish or support such activities, including necessary rosters, as will effectively maintain an adequate accounting of the current numbers and trends in numbers of scientific and specialized manpower in the United States and the current requirements and trends in requirements for such manpower in the United States. Except for material which would adversely affect national security, the results of these studies shall be made freely available. "Any roster of scientific and specialized manpower and other pertinent information derived from these and related studies undertaken by the Foundation shall be maintained in such form as to be usable in event of the mobilization of the Nation's scientific and specialized manpower."

6. With regard to the geographical distribution of the Foundation's research grants and contracts, the intersociety committee has carefully considered the various formulas that have been included in past bills. We are in complete agreement that one of the Foundation's major functions should be to aid in increasing the Nation's total scientific resources by improving many existing research laboratories and by making certain that adequate research facilities are developed on a broad geographic basis. We therefore endorse the statement of section 4 (b) of H. R. 12 and other statements in this bill intended to make certain that Foundation funds will be used to aid scientific progress throughout the entire Nation.

Mr. PRIEST. Our next witness is Dr. M. H. Trytten. Will you come forward, Dr. Trytten?

STATEMENT OF M. H. TRYTTEN, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. TRYTTEN. My name is M. H. Trytten. I am Director of the Office of Scientific Personnel at the National Research Council, and I should like to state that, differently from these other people who testified, I do not represent any organization. I am speaking entirely for myself.

I have prepared testimony as the other speakers this morning, and copies of it have been given to the secretary, and I shall appreciate it if that were introduced into the record.

Mr. PRIEST. It will be placed in the record at the end of your remarks.

Mr. TRYTTEN. The part I am concerned about particularly is the question of fellowships and scholarships. It seems to me extraordinarily important that provision be set into motion as soon as possible. The testimony that I provide here will give certain factual statements bearing upon the need for such fellowships and scholarships. It

will show, for example, that the development of the training of scientists in the United States over the past few decades has been a very rapid one up to the time of the beginning of the Second World War. Beginning, say, before the First World War, the stimulation of such training was quite noticeable. From that time up to about 1941, roughly twice as many persons were trained each decade as in the previous decade.

That, roughly, represented the rate of increase in training until in 1941 there were about 2,000 persons trained to the doctorate level in the sciences in American universities. Then there began a decline which was incident, of course, to the activities of the war, until in 1945 and 1946, in those 2 years, the number trained was less than 50 percent of those trained in 1941. And we have still by no means recaptured even the rate of training of 1941.

The past year the total will be of the order of 1,700. And the census which we have carried out will show that, in the opinion of the directors of training in various American universities, the total number trained in the next 5 years, beginning with the year 1948, will still not, on the average, reach the level which we trained in 1941.

In other words, we have not yet reached, nor will we reach in the next 2 or 3 years, on the average, the rate of training which we had actually arrived at in 1941; and this is in spite of the fact that the interest in research in the United States, the need for it and appropriations for it, have increased very tremendously-in fact, more so than in the period when our rate of training of scientists was increasing at this rate.

That is, in general, the type of information which is in this report and which I should like to submit for the consideration of the committee.

Mr. PRIEST. It is all included in your statement?

Mr. TRYTTEN. That is right, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. PRIEST. It will go in the record at this point, without objection. (The statement is as follows:)

TESTIMONY OF M. H. TRYTTEN, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, IN SUPPORT OF PROVISIONS OF H. R. 12, 185, 311, 1845 AND 2308

I am the Directof of the Office of Scientific Personnel of the National Research Council and desire to express my support of the concept of the Science Foundation as provided for in the bills listed above. It is a part of the function of this office to administer various fellowship programs of the National Research Council. Under these programs, several hundred fellowships are granted annually in the sciences at the post-baccalaureate level. My opinions are personal and do not necessarily reflect the position of the organization with which I am connected.

I wish to testify particularly concerning the provisions of H. R. 311 with special regard to section 10 (a), which provides for scholarships and fellowships in the sciences. I understand these provisions are the same as those in H. R. 12, 185, 1845 and 2308. I have not had an opportunity to examine the other bills under consideration by this committee.

In my estimation, there is a need for these provisions. The development of science has been spectacular in the present century. United States universities have turned out persons trained to the doctorate level at a rapidly increasing rate over the past decades. In the period just before the First World War, about 250 doctorates in the sciences were turned out annually by American universities. By the end of the next decade, this had jumped to an annual total of about 500 doctorates. By 1931, about 1,000 doctorates in the sciences were

turned out annually. This had increased so that in 1941 over 2,000 doctorates of the present century the number of persons trained to the doctorate level in production of persons trained to this level by American universities was sharply curtailed during the war. It will be noted, therefore, that from the first decade of the present century the number of persons trained to the doctorate level in the sciences approximately doubled every 10 years. Since these persons were absorbed by American scientific activities as rapidly as they were trained, the presumption is that scientific research has doubled by the same factor of increase during this period.

It may be questioned as to whether this rate of increase will continue. It is my belief that it will because of the following developments:

1. The development of nuclear science and its applications, both military and nonmilitary, which have opened up whole new fields of research with great and insistent demands for highly trained personnel. This includes the application of nuclear byproducts in almost every field of science, thus accelerating development of basic research in a great number of fields.

2. The role of science in military affairs which has sharply increased and presents substantial demands for scientific personnel.

3. The increased role of the United States in foreign affairs. A result of this new role is an increased demand from abroad for American scientific talent. This is demonstrated by such activities as the Fulbright program, the ECA program, and the program of technological assistance to underdeveloped areas now being developed by the Government.

4. The vast expenditure of funds for research by American industry.

5. The great expansion of the role of the physical sciences in basic biological and medical research with consequent increase in basic research activities in such health problems as heart disease, cancer, antibiotics, etc.

6. The world-wide interests of the United States resulting in new fields of research in many areas such as the Far East and the Pacific islands.

7. The fact that the United States now needs to fill the gap in basic scientific research which has been left by the weakening of scientific research abroad. It is also true that we need to regain the loss in basic science resulting from the great shift to applied science in the war years.

There seems little reason to doubt, therefore, that the demand for scientific personnel by legitimate and important activities in the national interest will continue to increase at least as fast as it did in the past.

It may then be asked whether the training of scientists has demonstrated the same rate of increase since 1941. The answer is that it has not. In the years following 1941, the number of doctorates in the sciences, trained by American universities, sharply and steadily declined until in the years 1945 and 1946 less than a thousand persons were trained to this level annually, or a drop of more than 50 percent from the 1941 total. There was an increase in 1947 to approximately 1,500, and in 1948 the total number of persons trained to the doctorate was approximately 1,700. It will be noted that we have not yet recovered the rate of training of American universities in 1941.

A recent census of American universities, carried out by the Office of Scientific Personnel, indicates that in the school year 1947-48 there were approximately 23,000 graduate students in the sciences in American universities. Of these, however, many will not go beyond the master's level. In the judgment of the faculties of the various universities, about 8,500 of these would be able to achieve a doctorate in the 5-year period beginning in 1948. It does not appear likely, therefore, that the rate of training of persons to the doctorate level will substantially increase beyond the numbers receiving their degrees in 1941 for some little time to come. The average for the decade beginning in 1942 will quite probably be less than the number of persons graduated at the doctorate level in 1941. Training at this level has, therefore, apparently not kept pace with the increased emphasis on research in the United States.

There appear to be two main hurdles which cut off the number of persons who go on to the level of training indicated by their abilities. The first of these is the transition from high school to college. The second is the transition from college to graduate school. In the first case, there is evidence to indicate that there are in the population substantial numbers of persons of high ability who do not have the opportunity to go on to college. From a study of the records of a large sample of persons who have achieved a doctorate in the sciences and an examination of their achievements on various psychological tests, it is possible to gain some idea of the average level of academic aptitude demonstrated by them. It appears to be true that about one-third of the population, at this

level of ability, do not finish college. Presumably this loss of individuals, highly qualified from the point of view of academic aptitude, is in large measure due to inadequate financial support. The numbers of persons in the population, at this high level of ability, is very limited. American civilization can ill afford to lose the contribution these persons can make if afforded the opportunity for training commensurate with their ability. In my opinion, there is definite need for a selective and competitive scholarship program which would provide opportunities for these highly competent people to secure training commensurate with their abilities.

In the transition from college to graduate school, there is good evidence to indicate a loss of competent personnel. In a census conducted by the Office of Scientific Personnel, the heads of scientific departments in the colleges and universities in the United States were asked to indicate the number of persons clearly competent to pursue successfully a career of training to the doctorate level, in the sciences, from among those who have majored in the sciences in their undergraduate curricula. This census indicated that about 25 percent of those who were clearly competent to carry on successful graduate training could not do so for lack of funds. The total number of persons involved in this category is not large, and it would seem to be possible, with an expenditure of relatively small sums of money, to offer fellowships to such individuals in the program. This would undoubtedly return rich dividends.

I would like, therefore, to express strong support particularly for this feature proposed in Science Foundation legislation.

Mr. PRIEST. You feel, Doctor, that the need for fellowships and scholarships is just as urgent if not more urgent today than it has been at any time in the past?

Mr. TRYTTEN. Yes. I would add that I think the two places where there are bottlenecks-that is, two hurdles which seem to be very difficult to get over for the student who wants to go on to training—are the hurdles from high school into college and the hurdle from college into graduate school.

Our information shows quite clearly that is where they fail to make the transition.

For example, at the high school and college level we think we have good evidence showing that about one-third of the population has the mental equipment to go on to successful advanced graduate training but does not have the opportunity to go on to college. We are losing one-third of the potentiality at this point. From college into graduate school there is a further sharp cut. It is the transition from college to graduate school which is difficult to make, and that is where we need assistance in assisting the students to bridge that gap.

Our information shows that about 25 percent of the highly qualified college graduates who want to go on to graduate school can not do so for lack of funds.

Mr. PRIEST. Are there any questions, Mr. Sadowski?

Mr. SADOWSKI. No.

Mr. PRIEST. Mr. O'Hara?

Mr. O'HARA. Doctor, you mean the bottleneck is an economic one for the students; is that the situation?

Mr. TRYTTEN. Yes. Of course, we do not know in each individual case why they do not go on, but it seems a strong presumption that is the case.

Mr. PRIEST. Mr. Wilson?

Mr. WILSON. How extensive are these scholarships and fellowships being given individually by private funds throughout the country? Mr. TRYTTEN. There are, of course, more and more being given as time goes on. I cannot quote you any statistics on the number, but this figure of 25 percent that I gave of highly qualified college grad

uates who cannot go on because of lack of funds represents an actual canvass and census which shows the extent of that need.

Mr. WILSON. There is a definite need of funds to accomplish that purpose of fellowships and scholarships in basic research?

Mr. TRYTTEN. In that field, yes, in training for basic research.
Mr. PRIEST. Mr. Bennett?

Mr. BENNETT. No questions.

Mr. PRIEST. Doctor, you have answered the question on the main point. There has been in the past some feeling that, because of the large attendance in colleges and universities as the result of the GI bill of rights, this question of fellowships and scholarships perhaps is not as important as it was 2 or 3 years ago when we began consideration of this National Science Foundation legislation.

Would you have any comment to make on that particular point? Mr. TRYTTEN. Yes; I would like to make two comments on that. One of them is this census which is referred to in here, which indicates the number of persons who will be trained to the doctorate level in this 5-year period, beginning in 1948, gives a total which will average less than 2,000 for those 5 years, which is actually less than 1941, indicating that we have not gotten back to the level of training which we had at that time. And it will also show in here that there is a great need to pick up highly qualified people at college level and make the transition to graduate school. The need is demonstrated there.

The second comment I would like to make is this: that I think the high enrollment over the past 2 or 3 years has given an impression which is not quite correct. It is the impression that a greater percentage of people of any given age are going on to college, which is not the case. The Census Bureau has a report which was published in the summer of 1948 which analyzes college population in terms of age. And that analysis shows that the reason for the high enrollment at the present time is not that a larger percentage of any group is going on to college but that the colleges at the present time have persons of a wider span of ages going on to college. In other words, it is the delayed enrollment which is increasing the enrollment in college at the present time; and, when the GI wave gets through, the enrollment is probably going to settle down substantially below what it is at the present time.

Mr. PRIEST. Thank you, Doctor.

Those of us on the committee who have studied this matter rather closely, I think, fully concur with your position and with the statement that you have given on the census and what it shows. But other Members of the House, for instance, who have not had an opportunity to go into this matter as fully as the committee has, ask that question frequently in considering legislation of this sort. I wanted to get into the record your answer and your analysis of it at this point. Are there any other questions?

Thank you, Doctor.

May the Chair state at this point it will be necessary for the subcommittee to adjourn in 15 minutes. With the conclusion of Dr. Trytten's testimony, that is the final witness scheduled for today. Because of the plane schedules being interrupted, it is possible that a witness is in the room who may be able to make a statement in 15 minutes and who may have to leave town and not be here later. Mr. WILSON. Mr. Chairman?

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