Scientific Manpower

Discusses how and why universities might restructure their graduate programs toward a greater sensitivity to society's needs.

When aerospace engineers, laid off from the space program, feel lucky to find employment as manual laborers; when physics Ph.D.s, ready and willing to teach, find themselves at the end of waiting lists hundreds of names long for positions at little-known colleges and even high schools--then clearly the problem of making proper use of those with advanced education, and of giving them proper scope, is already at a critical point.This book brings together from the universities, industry, and government a group that is knowledgeable and concerned, ex officio and as individuals. In their presentations and discussions they consider numerous aspects of the problem and several means of resolution.In their preface the editors write, In an attempt to convene various experts who had written in the scientific manpower field, a symposium was organized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the title The Supply, Need, and Utilization of Graduate Scientists and Engineers and was held on May 12 and 13, 1970. This report is an edited and restructured summary of discussions held at that time, with particular emphasis on the effect of the manpower utilization problem on graduate education. It clearly points to the urgency of manpower planning on a national scale and the necessity for universities to restructure their graduate programs toward a much greater sensitivity to society's utilization of the products of their educational programs.The Symposium was jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Commission on MIT Education.

Among the invited speakers were Philip H. Abelson, Editor of Science; Charles R. Bowen, Manager, Program Development, IBM Corporation; Allan Cartter, Chancellor, New York University; Charles Falk, Head of the Office of Economic Manpower and Special Studies, National Science Foundation; Richard S. Gordon, Vice President, New Enterprises, Monsanto Company; William C. Kelly, Director, Office of Scientific Personnel, National Research Council; Herbert Pahl, Acting Associate Director for Planning and Evaluation, National Institute of General Medical Science; Elbridge Sibley, Executive Associate, Social Sciences Research Council; Guyford Stever, President, Carnegie-Mellon University; and several directors of research for large companies.