Statement from the General Advisory Committee to the Atomic Energy Commission Regarding the Fellowship Program

STATEMENT FROM THE GENERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION Kg COVERAGED REGARDING THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM With regard to the proposals that have arisen in connection with the AEC's fellowship program, the following statement, which was drafted by two members of the Subcommittee on Research, was unanimously approved by the GAC as an expression of its views : Our intention in recommending that a fellowship program be set up by the AEC was to implement one of the purposes of the Atomic Energy Act, Section 3(a), "to assist in the acquisition of an ever-expanding fund of theoretical and practical knowledge in such fields. The fellowship pro- gram, as it has been arranged by the AEC, assists young men and women of unusual abilities in the physical and biologi- cal sciences to devote themselves for a period of a year or more exclusively to specialized study and research. The end results of this program are: specific scienti- fic knowledge in the public domain and, as has been so successfully demonstrated in the past by the National Re- search Council fellows, the nation gains a pool of highly trained scientists of immeasurable benefit to the public welfare. The influence of these men and women in promot- ing the health and growth of our sciences in all fields of scientific endeavor, in medicine, in technology, in the physical and biological sciences, has contributed largely in putting this country in a position of world leadership. We understand that proposals have been put forward that would require all holders of AEC fellowships to be cleared after an FBI investigation. We should like to register our strong disapproval of any such procedures. Admittedly, the tensions of the times and the secret nature of the atomic energy work require elaborate checks for all who have access to classified material. But to carry over the same security concepts to holders of fellowships who will in no way have access to secret or confidential information seems to us both unwise and un- necessary. It is clear that these requirements of FBI investiga- tion of prospective holders of AEC fellowships would be to extend still further the area of federal interference with the private lives of citizens. We use the word 'interference" advisedly, for it is evident that the type (more)