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To

From

SUBJECT:

Dar: July 27, 1977

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics

William F. Miller
Vice President and Provost

Dear Josh:

I am following up the note you sent me on June 30th from
Frank Press to you.

I had not heard about this activity of Ruth Davis' and to
my knowledge we have not been contacted here at Stanford. I
did hear that Ms. Davis was going to move from running the
Computer Science and Technology Center at N&s into the Deputy
Undersecretary position in DoD. That has not yet been con-
firmed, to my understanding, and so I don't know where she
is--that is, whether she's still at N@S or already at DoD.
I understood that she was occupying an office in the Pentagon
already.

I would think that if the DoD is really interested in
bridging the gulf, especially in the national security area,
that some rather small meeting that would include faculty as
well as university presidents would be in order. I'm not talk-
ing about a big conference, but a meeting of, say, fifteen or
twenty people. I am not sure that the various Washington offices
always understand what creates these gulfs; furthermore, they
often do not have their own ideas about how to bridge them.

All too often they think money is a sufficient bait or payment
to get people to participate in various programs. Obviously,
some of the more sophisticated leaders know otherwise. I would
certainly be glad to participate in such a meeting, if I thought
that it was going to be well run and would be attended by people
who could have an impact on the policy concerning relationships
with faculties and universities.

We may be about to undergo another round technological change
and innovation and if that is the case then I think that Frank
Press is quite right--that is, that we need to have a knowl-
edgeable group of experts outside the government who can give
independent advice. The word "independent" should be underlined,
because I think that quite a number of us have run into the

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Professor Joshua Lederberg
July 27, 1977
Page Two

situation where our government colleagues are seeking con-
firmation, not independent advice. At any rate, I concur
that it is an important problem; I think a serious review
of how to strengthen connections in the area of unclassified
basic research is in order. I think it must be a serious
review and done by such people as can get the attention of
policy makers. I would be glad to participate.

Best regards,

Bx

William F. Miller
Vice President and Provost