Leaders Of The Science Community Address New Graduates Of 1993

Editor's Note: During the past two months, leading members of the international scientific community were awarded honorary doctorates at dozens of universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. At many commencement ceremonies, the recipients seized the opportunity to share with the new graduates their views on what they consider matters of profound importance. Some conveyed broad philosophical messages; others offered morale-building advice. Still others took advantage of the occasion to amplify their call for better relations between government and science--or for better relations between humankind and the environment. The following excerpts are taken from the 1993 commencement speeches of five honorary degree-winning scientists whose careers have been marked by extraordinary achievement--Baruch Blumberg, Anthony Fauci, Walter Massey, Peter Raven, and Torsten Wiesel. affairs, University of California. Massey, the former director of the National Science Foundation, was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters and science degree by the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He was cited for his role in "setting national science policies as an active member of influential groups such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Physics, and the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology." In the vernacular of the popular press, science and technology have become hot items. No longer are discoveries and breakthroughs reported exclusively in the professional journals that scientists use to communicate the results of their research to each other, or in the journals that specialize in translating science to the lay public. There are, no doubt, many reasons for this increased media interest in science; but one major reason is surely that the public's imagination is captured by the kinds of questions that science is addressing--from supernovae to supercolliders to superconductivity--and also by the frequency with which exciting new discoveries are being made and technological innovations are being developed. It would seem to be a logical conclusion that the growth of reporting on science in the popular media, the unparalleled excitement in practically all areas of science, and the enhanced coupling of science to the commercial marketplace would result in an increased understanding of science on the part of the public, and a growing interest in pursuing scientific careers by American youth. Apparently neither is true, and therein lies an apparent paradox. On the whole, the number of American students entering scientific and technical fields is not increasing significantly. Projections indicate that the number of students receiving baccalaureate degrees in science and engineering by the year 2000 will be dramatically smaller than the number receiving degrees in 1986. What does this mean for you who are graduating today? It clearly means that you are part of a very special group--a precious commodity and a valuable resource for our nation and the world. There is a fellowship of educated men and women, but the entry ticket is more than simply a college degree. The entry ticket to that fellowship is character. At a minimum, you ought to strive to develop three traits that will allow you to remain in the fellowship: curiosity, skepticism, and confidence. Curiosity to give you a probing mind that is always seeking new answers; skepticism, which makes you want to get below the surface of things and to take very little on faith; and confidence that if you try, you can understand and master what you will and never end your educational growth. laureate, Wiesel was presented with an honorary doctor of science degree by the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He was cited for the "steady determination [with which] he has pushed back the boundaries of what we know about the mysteries of the brain." The physical and life sciences have since World War II received generous support both for training and research. This has been particularly true for biomedical science, which has led to spectacular advances, most recently in the evolution of molecular medicine and gene therapy. Without this support we cannot continue to make major discoveries relating to our understanding of cancer, heart disease, and brain disorders--discoveries that I am certain will have profound effects on the future of our medical care system. Unfortunately, we have a new administration trying to reform our health care system--which I very much applaud--while at the same time cutting back federal support for basic biomedical research. This nation spends about a trillion dollars a year on health care and only $10 billion on biomedical research and development. If you were running a corporation in which research and development were only 1 percent of your total budget, shareholders would rightly question your judgment in planning for the future. My general point is that research is being seriously retarded by the current policy in science and technology. In order to take advantage of the opportunities in modern science, support for basic research must not only be continued but expanded. In a sense, one must look at all scholars and scientists as long- distance runners. They run toward no visible goal. Day after day they follow the thread of their latest discovery into the darkness of all that remains unknown. This new knowledge forms the culture in which we live, the culture that is our collective memory. Without such a memory, we as a country would cease to function in a meaningful fashion, like a patient with amnesia. Louis. Raven was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by Washington University, St. Louis, for his continuing efforts as an "impassioned advocate for the preservation of biological diversity and for saving the world's tropical rainforests and animal and plant habitats." The world is one, and the sustainable resources of our common planetary home are limited. Understanding and accepting our environment as the only possible context for our lives will enable us to realize that the laws of what we call economics merely allow us to understand some equivalencies of commodities on a short time scale and not to extend the limits of the Earth itself; that sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination are abhorrent and unacceptable simply because we need every single one of us to contribute to our common success; that true sustainability is rooted in biological systems that must be understood and used properly for our common benefit; that comprehensive recycling is absolutely necessary for our long-term survival, but that only using less in the first place is sufficient for that survival; that prices must be adjusted to reflect the true costs of commodities; that sustainable technology must be substituted for resource consumption everywhere; that the Earth's human population must reach stability as soon as possible and at a level of individual consumption that can be sustained indefinitely; that allowing a major proportion of the only known living things in the universe to vanish forever without caring enough to do anything about it is immoral in the most profound sense of the word--an irreversible crime against all people now and in the future. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an internationally recognized AIDS researcher. Fauci received an honorary doctor of science degree from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., for his work in "the delineation of the mechanism of activation, proliferation, and differentiation of the human lymphoid cells involved in both the normal and abnormal immune response." When I graduated from college, I never would have predicted accurately what my world would be like or that I would be doing what I am now doing. When I entered medical school, I actually wanted to ultimately go into the private practice of medicine. The thought of being deeply involved in one of the most devastating epidemics in history never crossed my mind. Besides challenging my scientific and clinical skills, this terrible epidemic has opened for me an entirely new perspective on society. To borrow an image from a dear friend, Admiral James Watkins, former chairman of the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic in the Reagan administration and former secretary of energy in the Bush administration, the AIDS epidemic has created the opportunity to view contemporary society through the lens of the human immunodeficiency virus and has brought into sharp focus many weaknesses and faults in our society. The epidemic has brought to the forefront difficult questions regarding issues of public health and civil liberties, and it has highlighted painful truths about discrimination, poverty, and despair. On the other hand, through the "lens of HIV" we have witnessed remarkable examples of determination, dedication, and courage from persons with AIDS, from their families, loved ones, friends, and communities, and from the health care professionals who care for them. What is most sobering about the situation today is that for the first time in memory, our available resources will not match our aspirations. Unfortunately, your predecessors have mortgaged out a substantial part of your future, and now our society must face some difficult choices that will require individual and collective sacrifice. This is the arena into which you enter. Does it sound somber? Perhaps it does; but it really is not, for you will have the opportunity to participate in an extraordinary endeavor. You will be faced with the task of rebuilding the American dream even better than it was and in a manner that will endure. Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, and master, Balliol College, Oxford, England. Blumberg, a Nobel Prize winner, was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, for fundamentally changing "the practice of medicine with regard to the transmission of viral diseases and, in particular, viral hepatitis." Science is under attack in the contemporary world. There is a fear, not only of its consequences, but of the method itself. Our fellow citizens are concerned about applications that may be misused: the atom bomb, and by inference from it, nuclear power; sophisticated weapons of war; devices which, when mis- or overused, assault the environment; genetic engineering of humans, animals, and plants. People fear the creative arrogance of the presuming scientist-inventor. These fears of science arise in part from the widespread public perception that science is certain, that it is made up of a body of true facts and irrefutable data that are determining and overwhelm individual will. In many areas of science this is a misapprehension. In school, you are taught to give the answers that the teacher knows or to get the exact quantity set in the problem; you are taught to know what everyone knows. But, in the world of research, you are required to find out something new--something that no one knows--and in doing so, you gradually learn that the world of science is not as certain as it may have appeared in the textbooks. When I was teaching medical students in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a great insistence on "relevant" knowledge. Some of the students questioned the need for basic biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology. They wanted to know the main points of differential diagnosis and the medications and treatments to be used for a specific disease. The problem with this approach is that medicine is always changing. This point was forcefully brought home to me recently at an international meeting on hepatitis B held in Tokyo. We had, 20 years ago, introduced a vaccine for the prevention of HBV infection which had been shown to be effective and safe. It has been used successfully in millions, and more than 40 countries have initiated universal vaccinations. But, life changes and viruses mutate. Will the change be so large as to warrant changing the vaccine? At the moment, that appears to be unnecessary, but constant research in the field will be required to keep us alert to change. Without confidence, one can never arrive at a decision. But confidence must be tempered and arrogance shunned like the plague.

Leaders Of The Science Community Address New Graduates Of 1993

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