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NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
210t CONSTITUTION AVENUE
WASHINGTON,D.C. 20418

January 12, 1981

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
President

Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue

New York, New York 10021

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

I write to request your service on a committee convened
to address diverse aspects of the interface between scientific
freedom and the requirements for national security. The
committee will function under the aegis of our Committee on
Science and Public Policy (COSPUP) which will also provide the
nécessary staff and supporting services. It is premature to be
highly specific with respect to the nature of the charge or the
areas of concern. Rather, it is my hope that this committee will
map out the general terrain and, if at all possible, develop a
set of useful guidelines for the future.

A few recent episodes may suffice to illuminate the general
problem. First, was a conference on bubble memory technology,
concerning which officers of the Department of Commerce took
exception to the participation of certain foreign nationals on
the ground of potential violation of national security require-
ments. In a second episode, the government felt compelled to
establish guidelines concerning publication of the results of
certain new forms of cryptographic analysis and encoding,
although the work had been conducted as unclassified studies,
with federal support, by academic investigators.

As one views the future, particularly if current efforts
to build useful bridges between the academic community and the
industrial world prove successful while, simultaneously, inter-
national tensions heighten, and the ever more sophisticated arms
build-up continues, one can anticipate similar problems arising
in diverse connections. The presence of foreign nationals in
American academic laboratories, for example, may increasingly
come to be viewed as a sticky circumstance. Protection of
proprietary interests may also raise awkward problems. You can
surely imagine diverse other problems of similar kind.
I cannot predict the outcome of the proposed exercise.
It may culminate in a significant public report or, alternatively,
merely an internal guide for the use of those at the Academy
responsible for providing advice to federal officials and
agencies as problems arise. What we do seek is a thoughtful
attempt to anticipate the kinds of problems that may require
attention and a guiding philosophy that might serve in such
instances. Details concerning the first meeting of the Committee
will be provided by the COSPUP office in due course.

The Council of the Academy and Dr. Adams, Chairman of COSPUP,
join me in hoping that you will find it possible to accept this
invitation.

 

Philip Handler
President