Five Soviet Professors Due Here On Exchange

Harvard has not yet received from the University of Leningrad the names of five Soviet professors expected this spring under a faculty-exchange program originally proposed four years ago.

Edward L. Pattullo, assistant Dean of the Faculty, said yesterday that he was confident the Soviet professors will come. Last year Harvard was not formally notified of the arrival of three Leningrad teachers, first to take part in the Lacey-Zarubin exchange, until they applied for visas in early February.

"Governments Just Slow"

Although the cultural exchange agreement expired at the end of December, several visits by orchestras and other groups have taken place since then. "We assume the program will continue until the end of the academic year," Pattullo stated. "A new cultural agreement between the United States and the U.S.S.R. is now being negotiated, but "the governments are just slow getting together."

Last August the Soviets cleared five University professors for lectures and research at the University of Leningrad. Since then Louis B. Sohn, professor of Law, has decided not to go. In his place Harvard has proposed Herbert Dieckmann, Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages, but the Soviets have not written that they will accept him.

Definitely staying for three to five weeks in Russia will be Gerald Holton, professor of Physics; Richard E. Pipes, associate professor of History; George W. Mackey, professor of Mathematics; and Julian S. Schwinger, professor of Physics. Both Pipes and Mackey are on leave this year.

Sohn will be in Washington, D.C., until March as consultant to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. He was given sabbatical to work on a multi-volume treatise on international administration, and hoped to complete at least one book during his leave. But because of his government work and other obligations Sohn feels he cannot afford to lose a month's time.

Holton plans to study unpublished and little known works of the seventeenth century astronomer and physicist Johannes Kepler. Housed in the archives of the University of Leningrad, the manuscripts were bought by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, during the 1750's.

A multi-lateral exchange of graduate students between American and Soviet universities is working well, Pattullo said. Six from Harvard are at various institutions in the U.S.S.R.; and three Russian graduates are studying here.

Pattullo said that the University is not happy about the one-for-one Harvard-Leningrad exchange, and hopes a program similar to that involving graduate students can be established on a faculty level. Emphasizing the importance of research and study requiring a full term or year, Pattullo said that while the Soviets originally welcomed the idea, they have since changed their minds.