Association Briefs

IEEE Delegation In The Soviet Union Eight members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. returned home from their visit to the Soviet Union with basically what they were looking for—more insight into the Soviets’ research in optoelectronics. The IEEE delegation met with its engineering counterpart, the A.S. Popov Society, for the first time since 1984 (The Scientist, July 24, 1989, page 8), and toured Soviet industries, labs, and universities in Moscow and Leningrad. IEEE president Emerson Pugh says that his delegates observed the Soviets progress in fiber optics and lasers, and adds that their most impressive contribution is their work with glass, which was observed by Pugh and his colleagues at an optical institute in Leningrad, which he says is as sophisticated as a U.S. high-tech company. Looking at Soviet science in general, however, Pugh says that while Soviet engineers have the technical knowledge, ‘iheir lab equipment is kind of limited. It’s not state of the art.” Pugh says that although the Soviets are doing “good basic research,... they don’t have the knowledge to create products.” Pugh adds that the Soviet engineers do not receive as much support as do engineers in the U.S., but “they are very enthusiastic about the possibility of change.” The New York-based IEEE and the Popov Society had stopped meetings after 1984, Pugh says, because, “IEEE was giving more than it was receiving.” But after the Soviets showed they were “generally interested in equal exchange” on this trip, Pugh says the two organizations signed an agreement to meet again, including a trip by the Soviets to Atlanta in April. A Lion’s Share Of Nobel Winners Ever since 1904, when Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for his study of digestion in dogs, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology has been on a Nobel roll. With the awarding of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine to J. Michael Bishop and Harold E. Varmus, FASEB now boasts 116 members, including foreign scientists like Pavlov, who have won the prize since the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences began making the awards in 1901 FASEB’s executive director Robert W. Krauss attributes his association’s large share of winners to the quality of scientists that are members of FASEB, along with the “biomedical tilt” of the prizes. “Our scientists are at the core of biomedical research,” says Krauss. “They are active in society affairs and leaders in their fields.” FASEB has had’its most winners in the physiology or medicine category (76), followed by chemistry (29), medicine (8), and medicine or biochemistry (3). The Bethesda, Md.-based FASEB, a nonprofit, educational institution with more than 30,000 individual members, is an umbrella group covering eight professional societies. Bishop and Varmus won this year’s Nobel for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. Research! America On The Campaign Trail Now that Research! America has taken care of its initial phase of housekeeping chores, it’s ready to begin what it was founded for—the promotion of biomedical research (The Scientist, April 17, 1989, page 1). In the past few months, Research! America has hired an executive director and a public relations head, elected a board of directors, and has seen its membership of science associations, universities, and companies increase to 65. New executive director Jerome Paulson, a clinical associate professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, is ready to enter the next phase—launching a multimedia campaign that will focus on the health, as well as economic, benefits of medical research. Paulson says that while the public is ready to respond, “there is not an educated constituency out there. We’re out there talking to John and Jane Doe.” Paulson says that Research !America is on a pace to raise $3 million in funds for its first year. Research! America president and former Connecticut senator Lowell Weicker, Jr., says the organization is set as far as personnel goes. “I feel good in terms of the quality of our people. It’s second to none,” says Weicker. “Now, I’ve got to sell science.” The campaign, which will include radio, newspaper, and TV ads, was approved last month by the 21-member board, which includes C. Everett Koop and Tip O’Neill. A number of pilot seminars at academic health centers are also scheduled.

Association Briefs

The Scientist Staff

IEEE Delegation In The Soviet Union

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