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vy 3S5e a December 6, 1979

JOSHUA LEDERBERG

PRESIDENT

Dr. William M. Birenbaum
President

Antioch University

Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387

Dear Dr. Birenbaum:

This is not to quarrel with the thrust of "Forward
to the Basics" -~ you will see some echoes of cognate
themes in my own annual report, posted separately.

As a newcomer to New York City I would be delighted
to discover immense reservoirs of basic research, either
in chemistry or in economics, beyond the universities with
which I am familiar. I think of Bell Labs, IBM Research
and Brookhaven National Laboratories but none of these is
in the "great city like New York" -- or should I not read
such geographic precision in your remark? At that it is
arguable whether your statement would hold for chemistry,
as notable as are the contributions of the industrial and
national laboratories, especially in physics. Further BNL
has very close ties to SUNY-Stony Brook.

I am even more puzzled about your remark about eco-
nomics, especially after NBER moved most of its work to
Cambridge.

Certainly I adhere to your point about broader mobili-
zation, but I am not so optimistic how much basic research
we will find "over there", nor whether this is their special
contribution. I would be happy to be wrong.

 

Yours sincerely,

shua Lederberg