Latin American Science

The Oct. 30, 1989, issue of The Scientist contained a report in the University Briefs section [page 6] about the creation of a Western Hemisphere sister institute to the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. We at Fermilab have had a similar program of cooperation with developing nations of Latin America. However, we put major stress on experimental science and technology, with the thought that collaboration here would be more relevant to the needs of development. Our motivation was to advance world science and especially physics, in which human resources are still the most important ingredient. The attention that we feel should be given to helping science in underdeveloped nations is due in part to the financial difficulties of most of these countries and in part to recognition that a strong scientific infrastructure is a necessity for a country’s technologic advancement, which in turn is the basis for its economic development. Also, as scientists, we believe that science should strive to use the talents of all having the abilities to contribute to its advancement. One element of the Fermilab program has involved the administration of grants to aid Latin American physics, an effort arising from discussions at the Second Symposium on Pan American Collaboration in Experimental Physics, held in Rio de Janeiro in July 1983. At the symposium, many participants expressed concern at the effects of the economic crisis on the growing scientific infrastructure of the most developed countries in Latin America. It was realized that a relatively small amount of money would be enormously helpful in tiding the physicists in those countries over the difficulty caused by the hardcurrency shortages. The eventual result was a $300,000 grant in 1984 from NSF (partially funded by the Department of Energy) to the American Physical Society, with principal investigators Leon Lederman (Fermilab) and Leo Falicov (University of California, Berkeley). The grant was for assistance to physics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela; it was to be used for library subscriptions to U.S. journals, payment of page charges for articles in U.S. journals, per diem support for Latin American physicists on short visits to the U.S., and spare parts and small equipment items for Latin American physics laboratories. Note that all grant funds were to be expended in the U.S. The funds were all used by the end of 1986; after much letter writing and pleading, Fermilab was awarded another $100,000 grant in 1987, this time from DOE; this grant, whose purpose and method of administration was identical to the first one, is currently almost all spent. The grants were administered essentially by Falicov and Fermilab’s Roy Rubinstein, with all activities carriedout at Fermilab; no overhead was charged to the grants. In each recipient Latin American country, two representatives were chosen to ascertain, in a fair manner, the most critical needs for that country; a strong effort was made to select outstanding members of the physics community in each country, often involving that country’s physicists’ organization. The U.S. administrators, as far as possible, respected the choices of a country’s representatives, although items were rejected if judged to be not for physics research. Administering the grants was not without incident; much work was involved but it has led to some understanding of the problems of undertaking research in underdeveloped countries, and also to lasting friendships with many of the other people involved in this undertaking, who all were taking part not for material reward but for the satisfaction of assisting their fellow physicists. We have many anecdotes (including visitors to the U.S. with no money, phoning and expecting us to instantly supply funds),and have acquired a healthy respect for the often almost comprehensible and time-dependent regulations for getting scientific equipment past customs departments in the various countries. Dealing with some U.S. companies and persuading them to ship equipment to Latin America was often interesting, to say the least. The reader can perhaps appreciate the labor involved in administering $400,000 worth of grant monies in which the typical transaction is about $600; it was truly a labor of love. It is obviously of interest to verify the success of these grants in helping to facilitate physics research in Latin America. It is difficult to be quantitative, but we have had many conversations with Latin American physicists describing how their work became possible because of the grants. In addition, when the first grant ran out we reviewed more than 30 letters pleading with us to try and obtain a renewal. Some quotes from these are as follows: “In a country like Chile ... scientific isolation is one of the main problems .. ‘The funds were used to buy pure metals for evaporating purposes, materials, which were not available in my country.” Our opinion is that the grants have been very valuable in allowing physics research in Latin America that would otherwise not be possible. We hope that our experiences can be useful to others involved in similar projects. The needs for such assistance in Latin America (and presumably in other less-developed countries around the world) is large. The mind boggles at the benefits, long-term to science but short-term in so far as international amity, that would follow from a 100-fold multiplication of this project, spread to all scientific disciplines. The cost could soar to 0.2% of our foreign aid. LEON M. LEDERMAN Director Emeritus ROY RUBINSTEIN Assistant Director Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Batavia, Ill.

Latin American Science

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