THE CHIEF OF NAVAL RESEARCH
WASHINGTON

17 March 1969

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
School of Medicine

Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Dr, Lederberg:

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I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to discuss with you some
of the many aspects of current national science funding and
problems of allocation of resources, I am grateful for the
report of the New York Academy of Science that you arranged
to be sent to me.

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The continued broad support of our effort in the many disciplines
of science is certainly important. It seems to me that much more
must be done at the local level by bringing to the attention of

local communities the benefits that science has brought them,
some greater evidence of what it is doing for the people now,

and what it can or will do for them in the future, Lobbying at
national level may have its place, but I'm convinced that only

a concerted ''grass roots" effort on the part of the scientific
community will really turn the trick.

The Academy conclusion #2 is somewhat paradoxical. It calls
for a growth rate of 15% per year (not saying for how long) and
then admits that science spending should be defined by national
needs. The latter is the more meaningful if one could geta
hand on it. If Leontief or some other input-output analysis man
(or group) could come up with a matrix of scientific disciplinary
support as related to our needs, perhaps we'd all have a better
understanding of how much money we needed, how many
trained people, and how to allocate our support not on the
basis of parochial studies (Westheimer, Parke, Whitford,
et al) but with some logic.

The other material you sent me related to psychological
studies of those under conditions of stress is interesting.

The authors and some of the investigators cited have been
contractors to ONR on one occasion or another - not, however,
for work of the nature described in the particular papers you
enclosed, I shall discuss them with Rear Admiral Frank Voris
of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

It was a pleasure to meet Mrs. Lederberg. I'm sorry that I
didn't get to talk to her more at Lois' very pleasant luncheon,

Thanks again for your interest and enthusiasm in the ''state
of science" as we find it today.

Sincerely,

Tone Ta

T. B. OWEN
Rear Admiral, USN