‘BRAIN-DRAIN’ CONDEMNED

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30365, 14 February 1964, Page 16

‘BRAIN-DRAIN’ CONDEMNED

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, February 13. The British Government faces a major political row over the increasing exodus of top scientists to the United States. The Opposition—defeated last November in a motion which sought to censure the Government for its attitude towards scientific training and education now propose to demand a Royal Commission to find out what can be done to stop the “brain-drain” across the Atlantic.

The Labour move follows the news—given front-page prominence in most British national newspapers—that four brilliant scientists are to leave their universities for jobs in America. Birmingham University’s Professor lan Bush, 35-year-old leader of a mental-illness research team of nine, which he will take to the United States with him, was the first to announce his decision to quit England. The second was Dr. Leonard Weiss, also 55, cancer research pathologist at Cambridge, who will take three scientists with him to work as a team. The third. Professor Maurice Henry Pryce, 51, Wills Professor of Physics at Bristol University, will sail in July. The fourth “top Brain,” Dr. John Pople, one of Britain’s most famous theoretical scientists and a £4OOO a year Government researcher, is quitting the National Physical Laboratory to do molecular research in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology. In

America he can expect twice as much in salary and allowances. Fight For Money Professor Bush, whose team will continue their research into the chemical causes of mental illness at the Worcester Foundation in Massachusetts, has announced the reasons for his decision. He said it was “mainly petty things” which had forced him to transfer his research to America. He spent too much time over fighting for 1 money for “mundane and simple needs” to find enough time on the creative aspects of his job. Dr. Weiss, who leaves in four weeks to open a new’ unit for the New York State Health Department Centre at Buffalo, has won world fame for his cancer research. He ! takes with him a chemist, a | zoologist and an embryologist, They will get lavish new laboratories for experimental pathology at the Roswell Park Memorial Hospital in Buffalo. Professor Pryce, a brilliant atomic scientist, is joining a team of theoretical physicists at the University of Southern California. Speaking for the opposition, Mr R. H. S. Crossman, said: “We have told the Government for more than a year that if the increase in the student population and the equipment grant for research is not enough, the Labour Party proposes to spend £3om more a year.” 50 Gone His statement followed a demand by Professor Bush for an immediate £3om Government grant annually to cover the running costs of research at Britain's universities. According to the “Daily Mail” more than 50 top British scientists have settled in America during recent years, but exact figures are not available. Last year, the Liberal Party’s annual assembly was told that, in university science, Britain was losing about 13 per cent of its annual output of physicists almost wholly to America. The British Royal Society, in March, 1953. estimated that about 140 British research scientists emigrated every year, many of them to the United States. According to the Advisory Council on Scientific Policy, which last year advised the Government on measures to stop the “brain-drain” to America, the main reasons for the loss were the big difference in salary scales allied to better facilities for research and hightened prospects of advancement Sir George Pickering, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, said that the exodus of scientists was “symptomatic of the situation in Britain—the seriousness of which has been obscured by the complacency of Her Majesty’s Government.” Government Attitude He said that Professor Bush had “one of the most brilliant minds I have ever encountered.” He had become embittered with the difficulties of trying to develop a large and ambitious scheme of rese- -ch within university confines. He described the Government attitude towards university research as “niggardly” compared with the situation in the United States where there was much easier access to substantial funds for laboratories, equipment and staff. The Medical Research Council, which parcels out grants to research workers in Britain; has a total budget of £6m a year—described as “totally inadequate” by some Government critics. There has also been severe criticism of the attitude of British industry to the scientist. The Opposition Labour leader, Mr Harold Wilson, last year declared that “if industry gave as much to the scientist as it gave to the takeover bidder and advertising manager, Britain would be winning in the race for technological superiority.” These are the main points on which the Labour attack is likely to be based in the coming weeks.