Harvard Doctor Attacks Trend Of Funding Planned Research

A School of Public Health doctor yesterday cautioned scientific research-funding organizations against what he called a growing trend to support only predetermined research projects in medicine.

Thomas H. Weller, Strong Professor of Tropical Public Health and a Nobel Laureate, said he doubted that "programmed efforts" can solve many important medical problems.

Addressing the annual meeting of the United Cerebral Palsy Associations, Inc. (UCPA) in New Orleans, Weller said that the "personal philosophy" of the investigator should be the primary criterion for awarding scientific research contracts.

Weller was in New Orleans to receive recognition from the UCPA for research that resulted in the isolation of several viruses, including the one that causes German measles.

Weller said that he believes research on "unresolved biomedical problems of immediate societal significance" should take preference over experimental work done for the intellectual satisfaction of the experimenter.

"In today's society, scientific discovery is too often equated with the solution of a self-defined intellectual challenge, and the results are esoteric in terms of immediate benefit to mankind," Weller said.

The outlook the investigator has toward his research should be the determinant for funding. Weller said. "Is the problem visualized as an intellectual puzzle, or does the investigator seek an answer that will relate ultimately to the mitigation of human misery?"

Weller cited his 1948 research work with Dr. Frederick C. Robbins on polio virus, when he had the freedom to pursue individual research that ultimately led to isolation of the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles.

In 1954, Weller and Robbins received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work.