Director Out As Sigma Xi Ponders Role

BOSTON—The executive director of Sigma Xi, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious scientific societies, has been forced out in a bitter dispute over the proper role of the organization. C. Ian Jackson, hired in 1981 as an outsider with a new vision for the 101-year-old honorary society, was asked to leave June 19 by the organization's board of directors. The board was scheduled to meet last weekend to discuss plans for choosing his successor. "I am not leaving voluntarily," Jackson asserted in an interview from his home in New Haven, Conn., the headquarters of the society. "I would have liked to stay on and complete some of the changes that have begun, but I don't want to make more controversy than already exists." Although his departure appears to be the result of a major ideological battle over the direction the society should take, insiders also portray it as the culmination of problems caused by Jackson's management style. Klaus Timmerhaus, a chemical engineer at the University of Colorado at Boulder and incoming president of the society, called the current situation "a shambles" but said, "we're going to try to straighten things out as soon as we can and move forward." The society, often called "the Phi Beta Kappa of science," has some 500 chapters and over 110,000 members elected by their peers. Timmerhaus said that poor communication between Jackson and the society's board led to Jackson's dismissal. "A lot of things went on that no one on the board knew about," he said, "and a number of issues were brought to the board when decisions had essentially already been made." Michelle Press, editor of the society's bimonthly magazine American Scientist, said the board was troubled by the "execution of [Jackson's] policies, not the policies themselves." A Sad Ending Jackson was said to have played a major role in shaping a new orientation for the honor society. Calling his departure "a very sad ending" personally, he noted his "disappointment that the society is deliberately opting to revert to a pattern it was seeming to go away from during my tenure." Jackson is credited with helping the organization take a more active role in domestic and international science policy issues. One of his recent projects was a membership survey on the structure of science, results of which were published in a December report by the House Science and Technology Committee. Other projects included a meeting with a delegation from the People's Republic of China and a proposed collaboration by Sigma Xi members and the Soviet Academy of Science. These "high-profile" activities were a significant departure for a society traditionally involved with sponsoring scientific lectures, mostly at smaller American universities, and with dispensing small grants to undergraduates and some graduate students. Jackson is a meteorologist who came to the society after having worked at the United Nations and with the Canadian government. Some insiders say that Jackson's efforts were resented by some influential society members… And there is concern that Jackson's departure marks the beginning of a major staff shakeup. Timmerhaus acknowledged only that the society is at a crossroads. "I will stress in my term as president," he said, "that the board open its eyes and look five and 10 years down the road to what role we want to play in science policy, science education, peer review and many other issues." Shulman is a freelance writer in Cambridge, Mass.

Director Out As Sigma Xi Ponders Role

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