process of establishing a national consensus on these very important questions.

I will be pleased to respond to the committee's questions, Mr. Chairman, but perhaps first you may wish to have Dr. Perkins present his statement. We then can jointly participate in the dis

cussion.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Press follows:]

STATEMENT

by

Frank Press

President

National Academy of Sciences

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee.

appreciate the opportunity you have provided to us at the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, to join in vour discussion of "Engineering Manpower

Concerns." It is gratifying that at this, my first appearance before vour Committee as President of the National Academy of Sciences, I will be privileged to discuss a subiect that has been a serious concern of rine both as a scientist, as an educator, and as an individual involved in the formation of science policy at the national level. Dr. Courtland D. Perkins, the distinguished President of the National Academy of Engineering, joins me as a member of this panel and he and I both are pleased to provide whatever assistance we can in addressing the questions you have posed.

With your indulgence, I would like to address

these concerns in the broader context of challenges the nation faces in science and technology during the coming decades, drawing in part upon my experience of the past five years during which the demands of scientific and engineering manpower for serving modern technology were

an acute and continuing problem. My colleague,

Dr. Perkins, will address more specifically the concerns of engineering education that have emerged from the series of discussions and panel deliberations held by the National Academy of Engineering over the past several years. I should like to commend his leadership in bringing together members of that Academy to evaluate the state of engineering education and the availability and distribution of engineering manpower. These activities exemplify the useful role that can be fulfilled by the Academies in advising the government on timely issues of concern to the nation.

Mr. Chairman, your hearings should seek to provide a clear and factual exposition upon which decisions can he formulated in meeting engineering manpower needs for the next decade and defining the roles to be played by government, industry and the academic community in sharing this responsibility. Utilizing these institutions, we must provide modern teaching and research facilities and other programs to assure that talented individuals in adequate numbers are available for service in our vast scientific and

technological enterprise.

While our nation is still the

technological leader of the world, certain worrisome signs should lead us to examine carefully whether these goals are being well served. There is a widespread

belief that our technology today is growing less competitive with other industrial nations and that the

scientific and engineering facilities in which we educate and train future generations show an alarming slippage in comparative quality.

The sufficiency and quality of engineering

manpower resources for the future are directly related to the overall quality and level of research programs in our academic community. Only if our universities remain on the cutting edge and frontier of research endeavors, can we both advance the state of the art and improve the training of our youth. Thus, the problems we face are not just those of responding to manpower demands.

Today, our university departments of science and engineering in many instances utilize outmoded equipment--equipment that often lags behind the

technological facilities employed in the laboratories of our industrial plants. The problem has existed for a decade, but only recently have we been able to enlist the government as an active partner in a cooperative

effort to replace inadequate and obsolete equipment.

Yet today's stringent budget constraints have, for all practical purposes, aborted this effort.

Industry has increasingly recognized the value,

for its own future needs, of plant modernization at universities. But, however encouraging it is to see the growing contributions of industry to solving these problems, it cannot be expected to shoulder the entire burden alone. Obsolescence of equipment in our

universities must be addressed, and quickly, by

developing additional financial support from the Federal Government, industry, and other private sources.

One useful government initiative has been the incentive created for increased industrial support by the recently enacted Reagan Administration tax program which extends tax benefits to companies donating certain kinds of equipment to universities for research. A liberal use of this provision by industry could make significant contributions toward modernizing obsolete academic laboratories. More such innovative approaches must be effectuated.