Improve Image, Says Scientist

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 18

Improve Image, Says Scientist

Steps should be taken to improve the image of the biological scientist’s role in the world today, said Professor L. Fowden, professor of plant chemistry at the University College of London, in Christchurch last night.

One of the world’s foremost research workers in plant biochemistry, he arrived yesterday on a fortnight’s visit to New Zealand. Advertisements in England for plant scientists for Australia, and to a lesser extent New Zealand were noticeable, Professor Fowden said in an Interview.

Although this showed a shortage of trained people, it was apparent that there was now beginning to be a “saturated market” for physicists and chemists. There was, however, a demand for those in the biological fields of study, and to meet this it was necessary to improve tl e image of the biological sciences.

“Considerable effort in this direction is needed,” Professor Fowden said, “and in some cases Government action may well be warranted.”

The process should start in the schools, and instead of top students being channelled into chemistry and physics, as though these were the most desirable fields of endeavour, th® importance of biological science should also be emphasised. It should not be thought of as a discipline that was nof worth while. A rethinking was necessary, he said- These departments should be kept to the fore. They should be on a par with chemistry and physics in relation to apparatus and staff.

Professor Fowden said salaries along did not ensure an adequate supply of scientists.

It should be realised in the present age that fundamentally, the biological scientist had an important and sometimes more important, role to play than those in the physical sciences.

Before arriving in New Zealand Professor Fowden attended the Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo, and he also spent a short time in Australia. He will spend two days visiting plant chemistry laboratories at Lincoln and the University of Canterbury. He will later visit Wellington. Palmerston North and Auckland. .