May 9, 1969

Mr. Albert J. Lipson

Chief Consultant to the Assembly
California Legislature

Assembly General Research Committee
Room 320, State Capitol

Sacramento, California

Dear Mr. Lipson:

IT am pleased to note your letter of April 14 and itsinformation about the
proposed Science Advisory Council. The merits of such an organization are
so self-evident that I need hardly make such further comment. I should
think that you would want about ten people on it, and I would hope that a
tradition would soon emerge according to which the Council would be regu~
larly consulted on the problems of the State and the legislation that may
be required to meet them.

I would caution, however, that with the best of intentions,such a group

will nevertheless be stretched very thin for the necessary range of technical
knowledge and social awareness. I would hope, therefore, that the Council
function as the €oeus of a much broader activity along the following lines.
The Council should have a staff office in Sacramento. This office should
request that each of the institutions of higher learning and significant
research within the State name a specific individual to function as liaison
between the legislative Science Advisory Council and their own local tech-
nical community. They would be the focus of a great deal of necessary com
munication between the respective groups. The designated liaison men would

be charged with inculcating a spirit of sensitive awareness and responsibility
for thinking about the problems of the State within their own community, can
expect to receive considerable necessary information from the legislature

and other branches of state government via the Science Advisory Council, and
would be charged to communicate this to their own colé@eagues. In turn, the
liaison men would communicate any recommendations that they receive from

their own communities to the Science Advisory Council for further consideration
and presentation to the legislature.

A definite further advantage of such a scheme would be the involvement of
student energies in a constructive way to the analysis and delineation of
important contemporary problems, and theough channels by which they can hope
to have a positive impact on the welfare of the State and of themselves as
citizens.

NOS !7
Mr. Albert J. Lipson May 9, 1969
Page 2

It would be deatrable tothink of some additional funding that could help
to support such an operation, but I am sure it could be started without
explicitly supporting the program with State funds. The scheme would also
help to insure that the Advisory Council perceived its responsibility to a
very broad technical community, as well as to the State as a whole, in the
formulation of its recommendations. Otherwise a group as small as this is
likely to be accused, and perhaps even sometimes fairly, of parochialism
or representation of special interests.

A further step that could facilitate communication on these issues of State
interegt would be the establishment of a new publication, perhaps as an
appendix to the legislative record, but through whatever means would enable
wide dissemination of articles and critical digaussions of relevant subject
matter. Needless to say, many of the issues that require scientific expert
knowledge are controversial and should be ventilated as widely as possible
before legislative action is taken.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my reactions to these proposals.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics