University to Build Space Center

The University will establish a $750,000 Aerospace Center at the School of Public Health to investigate the safety of American spacemen and to uncover more efficient ways of winning the race to the moon by 1970.

Researchers at the Center will study the effects of space flight on man's health, intellectual capacity, and efficiency, according to a joint statement by President Pusey and Harry F. Guggenheim, president of the Guggenheim Foundation, earlier this year.

The Center will be financed by a grant from the Foundation and will be called the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Center for Aerospace Health and Safety. The $750,000 grant will be paid over a ten-year period.

According to John C. Snyder, dean of the School of Public Health, "the program planned for the new Center is not duplicated now by any other university in the world."

Will Train Doctors

Among the chief functions of the new center will be the training of doctors in aerospace medicine. It is hoped that the shortage of such highly trained doctors in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other government and civilian agencies can be somewhat alleviated.

The Center will also train outer space engineers and bio-medical scientists under a broadened and expanded teaching program. Researchers will be able to study the initial effects on man of various stresses encountered in flight.

Work at the Center will expand the field of operation of the Guggenheim Center for Aviation Health and Safety, which was established during the prespace days of 1957 at the School of Public Health.

Will Receive Extra Space

Snyder said that the new facility will receive more than ten times as much space in the School's research building as the present Guggenheim program.

Ross A. McFarland, professor of Environmental Health and Safety, will direct the greatly expanded program. He will conduct exhaustive tests to determine at what point in outer space a man's senses, thinking, and body efficiency begin to be impaired by travel towards the moon. McFarland is now director of the Center established in 1957.

McFarland and colleagues at the Center will also investigate the poisonous properties of fuels, radioactivity of power sources and spaceship cabins, and the many problems of breathing in closed systems.

Synder indicated that "the teaching and research at the Center will contribute not only to basic knowledge but also of practical operational problems peculiar to flight." He stressed man's physical and emotional abilities to penetrate outer space.

During the past five years, the Aviation Center has turned out about 70 graduates engaged in research, teaching, or administration in both military and civilian aviation. Some of the graduates are working with the astronauts' medical program.