DR. DUNHAM then requested MR. JOHNSTON to discuss plans for the Radiation
Instruments Branch.
He stated that a committee had been organized to
‘
make recommendations.
The committee includes Robley
Evans, of MIT as Chairman, Dr. Waterg of DMA, Dr. Kuper,
RADIATION
‘INSTRUMENTS
BRANCH.
of BNL, and Dr. Borkowski, of ORNL. The first meeting
was scheduled for September 18 so that no report could
yet be made.
The meeting was then turned over by DR. SHILLING to DR. WARREN, who
then introduced DR. DUNHAM to discuss research planning.
DR. DUNHAM
expressed the opinion that it appears as if the subject
of fallout was well in hand and that the Division could
divert more of its attention to normal reactor operations
RESEARCH
and similar matters. DR. DUNHAM asked the Advisory
PLANNING
Committee to make comments on the thirteen programmatic
category items and indicate in which areas they believed
more emphasis should be paid or on any which might be
sound.
Item 1.
omitted.
DR. WARREN said that the approach looked very
The items were taken up one by one for a detailed discussion.
MOLECULAR LEVELS - DR. BURNETT expressed the opinion that the
field was well covered except for a few minor areas.
He stated
incidentally that the Division appears to be so occupied and
under such great pressure that there appeared to be two
alternatives which should be investigated. One is to increase
the Divisionstaff and the otheris to obtain more outside
advice similarto the consulting system used by the National
Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health.
DR. DUNHAM
stated that there were three such advisory groups now set up
(Education, Genetics and Ecology) but that he did not like the
staff to become merely secretaries to advisory groups.
He also
stated that some correction would have to be made to the salary
structure
in order to continue to attract the right type of
staff.
DR. BURNETT stated that no matter how competent the
staff was, it still needed time to think. DR. DUNHAM expressed
the opinion that some routine matters could be aided by enlarging
the staff.
DR. SHILLING stated that Dr. Wolfe's four advisors
had given him real assistance in genetics. The choice of the
individuals had been left to the staff and the American Institute
of Biological Sciences had made recommendations.
It was generally
agreed that the staff should have the ultimate authority concerning
the research program.
DR. DUNHAM spoke of the problem of the
travel budget.
He said that it had been cut and that the situation would probably be worse when the office moved to Germantown.
At present, scientists attending Washington meetings drop in
frequently to discuss the research program and that this will
probably be discontinued to some extent because of the relatively
inaccessible location in Germantown.
-ll-