THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

1230 YORK AVENUE - NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10021

 

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

July 17, 1978

Dr. Leonard S. Lerman

Dept. of Biological Sciences Re: Dr. Richard S. Young

The University at Albany Your search for Vice President
1400 Washington Avenue for Research/Dean of Graduate
Albany, NY 12222 Studies

Dear Len:

I have known Dr. Young for over 15 years. During that time he has
occupied a variety of roles: as an experimental biologist and then later
with more and more administrative responsibility for biological work in
NASA. His work has brought him into daily contact with a wide variety
of professionals in the engineering and physical as well as biological
sciences, with administrators and budget makers, and with a wide range
of scientific and technical information. He is a competent investigator;
but his special skill is as an efficient coordinator of the efforts of
other people. He has the rare quality of being able to work well with
academic stars without being threatened by their reputation and other
roles, in a way that I know is an important but rare qualification for an
administrator at his level. These qualities are widely recognized and
appreciated by his colleagues occupying many different niches. This
would not be possible if he did not have an unusual sensitivity and
respect for the needs of others, and deeply qngrained standards of
integrity and fairness in his interpersonal relationships, and commitments
to the values of scholarly and scientific pursuits. His motivations for
social utility and for educational efficacy are of the highest standard.
So, both from the standpoint of his ideals and his ability to get things
done in arenas that require that other people respect his efforts, he
should indeed be an ideal candidate. There are many other positive traits
that I might believe ought to be taken for granted as corollaries of what
I have said; if I have left out anything that I believe would be relevant
to this position, it is purely by inadvertence. He would bring a high
degree of energy, devotion to accepted tasks, imagination and judgment,
and I hope you have been able to configure the task to be able to
attrack him. I believe he would be especially suited for a role of
leadership for science in an interdisciplinary context, which I believe
is close to your own aspirations.

His leaving NASA would be in fact some personal loss to me since I
have enjoyed working with him in that context. He has played an important
though unheralded part in the success of the Viking mission. Nevertheless,
no one can escape the prognostications about the long-range future of NASA
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7-18-78

Lerman

funding of scientifically (as opposed to purely technically) oriented
lines of work, and his position at NASA surely must become daily more
frustrating for reasons beyond his control. But through gloomy and
exhilarating occasions I have never seen him lose his balance, his good
cheer and his determination to make the best of the most difficult
situations, usually with unexpected success.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg

JL/ gel