President’s Science Advisory Committee

At almost the same time as the 1958 faculty meeting, the US President s Science Advisory Committee referred to universities attempts to establish a new materials science and engineering and claimed that they needed government help (Psaras and Langford 1987, p. 23). 

Revelle, R., Broecker, W., Craig, H., Keeling, C. D., and Smagorinsky, J. (1965). Atmospheric carbon dioxide. In "Restoring the Quality of Our Environment," Report of the Environmental Pollution Panel, President s Science Advisory Committee, The White House. Washington, DC, p. 126. 

Panel on Herbicides, President s Science Advisory Committee, Report on... 

The initial concern for the possible hazard to humans exposed to 2,4,5-T was precipitated by teratologic studies conducted by Bionetics Research Institute under contract from The National Cancer Institute (2). In these studies, large doses of 2,4,5-T were administered to pregnant rats and mice for nine of the 21 days of pregnancy. The incidence of fetal abnormalities was slightly higher in the treated animals than in control animals. Later tests indicated that these abnormalities (cleft palate) may have been caused by 27 8 ppm of 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-dibenzo-p-dioxin present as a contaminant in the 2,4,5-T sample used in the Bionetic study (3). After the results of the study were made known, the Panel on Herbicides of the President s Science Advisory Committee studied the total 2,4,5-T situation. The report of this committee was published in March, 1971 (4). 

President s Science Advisory Committee Report, "Use of Pesticides, White House, Washington, D.C., 1963. 

Report of the Panel on Chemicals and Health of the President s Science Advisory Committee, 73-500, NSF, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC, 1973. 

The publication of Rachel Carson s Silent Spring in 1962 and her description of pesticide contamination of waterways, land, and wildlife galvanized, for the first time, the American public s concern about the chemical industry. The issue was further fed by the heated response of the chemical industry when Monsanto published and distributed 5000 copies of a brochure parodying Silent Spring, which related the devastation and inconvenience of a world where famine, disease, and insects ran amok because chemical pesticides had been banned. Carson s carefully researched work was only vindicated when many eminent scientists rose to her defense, and President John F. Kennedy ordered the President s Science Advisory Committee to examine the issues the book raised (NRDC, 2004). As a result, DDT came under much closer government supervision and was eventually banned. 

I am placing myself squarely on the premises set forth by the preceding speakers and the House Committee report. I feel justified in doing this because of some earlier associations with the issues we are considering, which at the same time explain my inclusion on this program. During my membership on the President s Science Advisory Committee, I had occasion to familiarize myself with this field as chairman of a Survey Panel, the conclusions of which were in complete harmony with what we have heard today and in fact may in some measure have contributed to the current re-evaluation. Even so, I am... 

Source (1) The World Food Problem, the President s Science Advisory Committee, Volume II, May, 1967. (2) Projections beyond 1985 based on United Nations Medium projections as shown in The Future Growth of World Population (UN Publication Sales, No. 58 XIII 2). 

Report on 2,4,5-T, A Report on the Panel on Herbicides of the President s Science Advisory Committee," Executive Office of the President, Office of Sciences and Technology, March 1971. 

During World War II he directed an NDRC project on oxygen production, was Assistant Research Director of the Rubber Administration, Chief of the Navy Jet Propulsion Panel, Deputy Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Cuided-Missiles Committee, and Chief of the Office of Field Service. He later was a member of the President s Science Advisory Committee and the Department of the Interior s Saline Water Committee. 

Wang, Zuoyue. 2008. In Sputnik s Shadow The President s Science Advisory Committee and Cold War America. New Brunswick, NJ Rutgers University Press. 

The AEC sent its draft report to the Bmeau of the Budget in mid-September. Initial reviews by the Bureau staff and by the President s Science Advisory Committee indicated concern over the report s emphasis on the urgency of the need for atomic power. Wiesner, who had always been lukewarm on the idea of such a report, was particularly outspoken in expressing this view. Budget director Bell decided to circulate the report to the State and Interior departments and to the Federal Power Commission for their reactions before making a decision on disposition of the document. After he discussed the report with Haworth and Wilson, the AEC redrafted and resubmitted it. The new draft incorporated a somewhat changed tone, but the conclusions remained essentially the same as in the September version. The president released it on 20 November, nearly three months after its deadline. ... 

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