The 11-member panel, chaired by chemist Richard Zare of Stan ford University, completed its re port in three months at the request of NSF Director Erich Bloch. The timing of the report, which complements a five-year plan being developed by staff that addresses the proper balance of funding at NSF, also reflects Bloch's desire to begin the program during the 1988 fiscal year that begins October 1.
Although the panel was asked to study the details of creating and operating such centers—their essential features, the criteria for se lection and the disciplines to be included, among other factors— members also looked at how such a program would fit into NSF's cur rent pattern of funding university-based research. Their fears about, the future health of individual investigators was reinforced in a discussion last month by the National Science Board of both the NAS report and NSF's five-year plan.
"There's concern in ...
