Government and Private Foundations

Research and education go hand in hand in chemistry and chemical engineering. While it is possible to teach students about the chemistry of the past by lectures alone, participation in research gives them a chance to learn what science really is, and to engage their creative and critical imaginations. In this way, the support of research directly contributes to the education of chemical scientists. It can also provide those students who want to go into other fields—law, business, government—with a real understanding of the basic and applied work in chemistry and chemical engineering. 

Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2002-03 Edition, http //www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm. 

The basic research in our fields is now done largely in universities. It can have incredibly important practical results, but those results cannot normally be predicted in advance. Who would have thought that the basic study of induced energy emission from excited states of atoms and molecules that led to the laser would wind up giving us a better way to record music, or read supermarket prices Would a music company have funded that research Who would have thought that our increased understanding of the chemistry of life would have led to the creation of biotechnology as an entirely new industry The industry that benefited from the basic research could not have funded it, since it did not yet exist. 

9Measuring Up Research Development Counts in the Chemical Industry, Council for Chemical Research, Washington, D.C., 2000 http //www.ccrhq.org/news/studyindex.html. 

TABLE 12-3 Federal Funding for Research in Science and Engineering (Millions of 2000 Dollars)11 

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