Graduate Fellowship System - ACS Publications - American Chemical

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Graduate Fellowship System

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HE principal functions of

done by persons so excited about their experiments that a university are the creaH . B . HASS they think of them during tion, preservation, and disPurdue University and most of their waking hours. semination of knowledge. The Purdue Research Foundation, Lafayette, Ind. Anything substantiallv less first of these is fulfilled largelv than this represents by research, which is ;ne a poor bargain for the inof the creative arts. As such, dustry. it reflects the personality of the While considerable postdoctoral research has been done on researcher and does not lend itself readily to complete rational foundation fellowships, in most cases the results become inanalysis. There are, however, various organizations which corporated in a doctoral thesis. This is one reason for accepthave been devised for the purpose of facilitating scientific ining only scientifically important problems and for insisting vestigation; this article deals with one of them, the Purupon ultimate publication. It also accounts for the fact that due Research Foundation, with the underlying thought that research can be done more economically in the university than the demonstrated success of the policies here described may in an industrial laboratory. The stipend received by the felmake them of general interest. low is carefully calculated to enable him to live healthfully and decently but leaves little for outside activities. The fellow’s History of Purdue Research Foundation principal reward is the training represented by the doctoral degree. I n case the project reaches commercial success, the In December, 1930, a group of courageous men under the fellow also receives a share of the royalty payments. The leadership of David E. ROSS,president of the Board of Trusknowledge of this fact is a stimulus to earnest endeavor. tees of Purdue University, and J. K. Lilly, chairman of the The professor directing the research receives no extra inBoard of Directors of Eli Lilly & Company, established the come except from royalties. If there was a “flash of genius” Purdue Research Foundation, the purpose of which is to proin the establishment of the foundation, it came at this point, mote closer relations between industry and the university. The effects of this policy are far-reaching. There is no tempThe wisdom of this objective has been argued elsewhere (9); tation for a professor to assume the direction of a problem in for present purposes it is sufficient to point out that Purdue is order to augment his income and then give the matter relaa land-grant institution and was created specifically for the tively little thought and attention. An unsuccessful problem purpose of aiding “agriculture and the mechanic arts”. Since brings no remuneration. The man who is ignorant of the rethe university charter did not clearly give it the right to own quirements of industry has a strong incentive to correct his patents and perform certain other functions necessary to a deficiencies and to cooperate with the scientists who must ulclose research partnership with industry, the foundation was timately decide whether the new process or product will be organized with this in view. adopted or discarded. Finally, the professor with an aversion The foundation discovered at once an eager and active ally to the practical is not tempted to waste his own time and the in the Department of Chemistry where a mutuality of interests company’s money. led to continuous, close cooperation. I n the decade since 1932 Patents resulting from the researches are assigned to the the research funds in this department obtained from the Purdue Research Foundation. This provision sometimes foundation have increased fairly steadily from five thousand seems inequitable, a t first glance, to industrial executives who dollars a year to twenty times that figure. feel that their company is paying for the creation of an intangible asset which then becomes the property of the foundaPolicies and Practices of the Foundation tion. It should be recalled, however, that the skilled direction of the research is not paid for, and the fellow is receiving most I n order to understand the operation of the foundation, let of his reward from the university (in the form of training) us see how a project originates. Frequently independent rather than from the industrial sponsor. Since the university thinking on the part of a faculty member, supported by prehas such a large stake in the projects, it is equitable for the liminary experimentation, results in a research problem of foundation to profit if (and only if) the industry profits. The sufficient promise to attract the interest of an industrial group. exact royalty to be paid varies from one case to another and is The contract is negotiated by Director G. S. Meikle, one or best left to negotiation and, if necessary, to arbitration, after more fellows are assigned to the problem, and laboratory work the laboratory work is complete and the value of the new disis begun. When the pilot-plant stage is reached, it is precoveries can be more nearly appraised. ferred to allow the industry to take over the problem although The question of whether the license under a foundation on more than one occasion the Purdue group has assumed this responsibility also. patent should be exclusive or not is difficult. The foundation believes that it is obviously inequitable to expect any company l n recent years industry has brought its projects to the to furnish the funds for a research project, assume the risk foundation to an increasing extent. Before attempting the that perhaps no valuable results will be obtained, and then, in solution of a problem originating from a source external to the case commercial success is achieved, to allow another corporauniversity, the foundation assures itself that it is of vital intertion to enter the field merely by matching the financial contriest to one or more staff members, is of genuine scientific importance, and has a reasonable chance of success. The reason bution of the first group. Such a policy would act as a deterrent against assuming the financial hazard involved in the for the first of these requirements is that cooperation between support of research and would thus defeat the principal obthe foundation and faculty members is on e purely voluntary jectives of the foundation. On the other hand, it sometimes basis, and there is no means of compelling a professor to attack happens that a process or product of little or no value to the a problem distasteful to him. I n general, the best research is 223

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company sponsoring the research which created it may be worth adopting by some other corporation, which is more favorably situated with respect to raw materials, markets, or other dovetailing processes. It would be contrary to public policy for such a situation to result in an artificial dormancy for the life of the patent, and it will be recalled that Purdue University is a state and federal institution. If the question of general public policy controlling tax-supported institutions did not dominate the situation, one solution would be a minimum license agreement which would serve to force the industry either to use the results of the research, allow their rights to revert to the foundation, or suffer an economic penalty. We find industry, very understandably, reluctant to accept minimum royalties. The commonest arrangement on this point is a contract providing for the licensing of another company unless due diligence is shown by the sponsor in applying the results of the research. If this seems to require a great deal of confidence in the ethics of the Board of Directors of the foundation, it should be remembered that this group is composed of first-rank scientists and business men who may not profit financially by this connection. The foundation is a nonprofit organization and royalties received are used for two purposes: furtherance of fundamental research, and rewarding the faculty member and fellow responsible for the discoveries and/or inventions resulting in the patents upon which royalty payments are based. The decision as to the distribution of royalties between these two objectives rests with the Board of Directors of the foundation. Before beginning work on a project, all patent rights are assigned t o the foundation by fellow and professor. It will be recalled that cooperation with the foundation upon the part of any faculty member is not compulsory, and this serves as a substantial guarantee of fair treatment. I n this department a uniform policy has been adopted of sharing royalty payments equally between fellow and professor. Such a system obviously requires very careful records. A United States patent is invalid if it can be proved that the wrong names or too many or too few appear on it as inventors. Duplicate bound notebooks are kept with the aid of carbon paper, and the usual precautions are observed: entries direct, entries dated, no blank spaces, all entries in ink, and experiments described with sufficient care so that they can be repeated with the notebook as the only source of information. In addition to the notebook, monthly reports are required of all fellows. Copies of these are sent to whomever is designated by the industrial group to receive them and the fellow has full responsibility for correctness of content and form. The writer reads all reports and is fairly unmerciful in criticism of both English and chemistry. Unofficial nomenclature as well as split infinitives, confusion between yields and conversions, and occasionally, mistakes in the interpretation of results are called to the fellow’s attention, usually by written memorandum. Each report begins with a one-page abstract supplied for persons unable to spend the time required to read the entire copy. It is our belief that the monthly summing up of results is of great value in training the fellow for writing similar reports later in connection with industrial research work. It is of obvious assistance t o those following and directing the work and to the patent attorneys, and often the recapitulation of data suggest new experiments t o be tried. Graduate students seriously deficient in written English are uncommon, but a few are discovered each year and remedial measures are taken while sufficient time is available to make them effective.

Foundation System as a Teaching Mechanism Almost without exception, foundation fellows from this department have entered and are now occupying positions in industrial research organizations. Our belief that this system

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prepares men unusually well for such responsibilities seems to be widely shared by their employers. I n many instances the graduates have gone with sponsoring companies where their fellowship experience has been directly applicable. I n most cases, however, the enhanced value of the training has been indirect and is probably attributable, a t least in part, to the following factors: close contact with leading industrial chemists who usually make frequent visits to Purdue during the course of the work; experience in the use of expensive equipment provided by industry and beyond the reach of most university budgets; familiarity with the industrial viewpoint, the habit of including dollars and cents in his chemical thinking; and the additional motivation provided by a problem of obvious social importance.

The Foundation and Fundamental Research The question has frequently been raised as to the effect of all this upon fundamental research. Let us define our terms. “Fundamental” means “of or pertaining to the foundation”. A foundation is something that can be built upon, and a fundamental scientific discovery is one that forms the basis for other scientific advances. Let us remember that, in general, fundamental discoveries are usually a source of benefit to the public sooner or later. The classification of a given phenomenon as belonging in the category of “pure” or “applied” science has meaning only as of a given date. What begins as pure science frequently is applied subsequently. It has become fashionable among some scientific groups to feel that the worker in pure science is, in some esoteric way, “a little closer to heaven” than his confrere who is attempting to use scientific discoveries to benefit humanity. The fallacy of this is exposed when the same worker in pure science is asked to justify public support of his researches; he invariably does so by pointing to the numerous instances in which investigations in pure science have created new industries, improved the general health, or in some other way ameliorated the condition of humanity. He is tacitly assuming a truismnamely, the only valid argument for public support of research is that benefits to the public flow from it-which demolishes the logical foundations of his feeling of superiority over the scientist or engineer who is trying t o create exactly these human values. If pure science is important because of its impact upon humanity, then the conscious effort t o use science for the welfare of people should be a part of the thinking of every serious scientist. The only distinction between pure and applied science that will bear logical analysis is to designate a given problem as long-range or short-range and the results as potential or active. Research on the mechanism of photosynthesis would be an example of the former. The solution to this important problem might revolutionize the production of food and the utilization of solar energy, but such results could be expected only after decades of intensive research. An example of a shortrange, immediately applicable, research problem is the improvement in the yield from a chemical reaction capable of being used for the manufacture of valuable products, by a systematic study of temperature, pressure, reaction time, catalysts, and concentration of reagents. The results could yield financial returns almost immediately. It is true that industrial support is more easily obtained for short-range than for long-range problems. And yet the more forward-looking companies are keenly aware of the necessity of having in the literature a vast stockpile of potentially useful knowledge from which industry may select ideas that some new development has for the first time made practicable. A well known instance is Cavendish’s experiment in which he used an electric spark to produce combination between the oxygen and nitrogen of the air. Approximately a century

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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

later, when electrical energy became cheap, this process was developed by Birkeland and Eyde into a commercial source of nitric acid. It is to assist in replenishing the store of potential knowledge that du Pont, Allied Chemical & Dye, Abbott Laboratories, and J. T. Baker Chemical Company have established fellowships in pure chemistry a t Purdue. It is of interest to note, however, that these fellowships came to us only after research on projects leading to rapid commercial success had attracted attention to this department as a research agency. The generosity of certain philanthropists, particularly J. K. Lilly, David Ross, and H. N. McCoy, have contributed tremendously to the achievements of this department in both pure and applied science. Fellowships established by these men, and administered by the Purdue Research Foundation, have enabled various members of this department to make fundamental contributions to chemistry without thought of immediate applications. A considerable proportion of the preliminary experimentation, which later resulted in industrial research fellowships, was made possible by these funds. The new methods for the resolution of enantiomorphs (1, 7), the Lecky-Ewe11 spiral gauze rectifying column (6), and the work leading to the establishment of the fundamental rules of aliphatic chlorinations (S,d, 6) were done under these circumstances. The royalty system of the foundation constitutes a further guarantee that research on long-range problems will continue to receive substantial financial support. Industrial profits derived from the application of discoveries made in this department are thus utilized for the direct furtherance of the type of research upon which the foundation might be presumed by some persons to have an inimical effect. Another aspect of this problem deserves mention. The rate

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at which potential knowledge is accumulated is largely a matter of the magnitude of the total research effort being put forth. The most important scientific discoveries usually involve a considerable element of the fortuitous. The instance of the chemist who succeeded in his efforts to oxidize naphthalene to phthalic acid by means of sulfuric acid only after he broke his thermometer and introduced catalytic quantities of mercury is not too far from the typical. I n the development of a science that is partly empirical, researchers working for immediately useful results will inevitably create potential knowledge as a by-product if they have learned to keep their eyes and minds open. The fact that every recently published textbook of organic chemistry has devoted space to a discussion of the results of the nitroparaffin researches carried on by the Purdue Research Foundation is strong evidence that there is no essential conflict between the creation of fundamental knowledge and the foundation procedures. Literature Cited (1) Bailey, M. E.,and Hass, H. B., J. Am. Chem. SOC.,63, 1969 (1941). (2) Hass, H. B., Priestley Lectures, Penna. State College, 1942. (3) Hass, H.B., McBee, E. T., and Hatch, L. F., IND.ENG.CHEM., 29, 1335 (1937). (4) Hass, H. B., McBee, E. T., and Weber, Paul, Ibid., 27, 1190 (1935). (5) Ibid., 28, 333 (1936). (6) Lecky, H. S., and Ewell, R. H., IND.ENG.CHEM., ANAL.ED.,12, 544 (1940). (7) Shapiro,E., doctoral thesis, Purdue Univ., 1942. PREBENTBD a8 a part of a Symposium on Research Management before the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry at the 104th Meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL QOOIETY, Buffalo, N. Y.

Research Accounting

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ECAUSE of the consuch as salaries, wages, maDANIEL H. SHEEHAN and F. J . CURTIS terials, e% but siderable amount invested in research programs a l s o b y c l a s s e s of Monsanto Chemical Company, St. Louis, Mo. research and bv individual by manv of the larger comprojects. panies, "it has been found There are undoubtedly many necessary to exercise careresearch classifications in use ful control over expenditures but our company has found it desirable to segregate these exfor this purpose. Such control is not intended as a restriction penditures into: production research, research on new procupon the initiative or resourcefulness of the director of reesses for present products, research on related new products, search, but is for the purpose of ascertaining that the proper research on unrelated new products, application research, amount is expended on each project in the program commenpilot-plant research, engineering research, purchased processes, surate with its importance in relation to all other projects. One of the most important and effective tools which may be and outside research. With the exception of production reused in exercising this control is accounting. It supplies both search, application research, and engineering research, the the management and the research director with valuable intitles of the various classes are self-explanatory. Production research represents work on processes currently formation which should be of material assistance in the planused in the manufacture of the company's products. Such ning of this work. I believe it a fair statement to say that all service is usually performed a t the request of production deother factors being equal, the company having the most efpartments, fective accounting control of research expenditures will obtain Application research is performed with a view to finding new the best results from this work a t the lowest cost. The accounting for research is usually divided into two uses for present products. This work is done usually in collaboration with the sales department. phases-the projection or budgeting of research expenses, and The work done by mechanical engineers in the designing of the determination of the actual cost. Effective supervision equipment for pilot plants and other research uses is conand control of such expenditures makes it necessary not only to budget and accumulate research cost by classes of expense, sidered engineering research.