Friday, 30 Sep 94 Washington, DC

1. CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REDUCES DOD UNIVERSITY RESEARCH BY $200M!
That's a lot less than the $900M cut proposed by the House (WN 24 Jun 94), but it's still a 10% cut in DOD university research. The conferees expressed concern at the $500M in overhead the DOD pays annually to universities and at the variability of the overhead rate. The Secretary of Defense was directed to report by 1 Feb 95 on the actions DOD proposes to take to address these concerns.

2. A CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES UPDATE: COMPETITIVE POSITION IMPROVES!
It is amazing how Congress can solve the nation's problems. In 1991, the Council on Competitiveness (an industry group not to be confused with the White House Competitiveness Institute) reported that the US was losing badly in 11 of 22 critical technologies -- and was weak in the rest. The solution? Senate appropriators called for NSF to redirect research toward the needs of industry (WN 7 Aug 92). NSF has since agreed to devote at least 60% of its research budget to "strategic goals" (WN 2 Sep 94). The new priorities haven't even taken effect yet, but already the results are striking: according to an updated survey released last week, the US is now competitive in each of the technologies in which we had been weak and much improved in those we were losing. Council advisor Admiral Bobby Inman, however, attributed improvement to increased emphasis on quality and improved training programs.

3. CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS IS MUZZLED IN ASHLAND OIL CASE!
The weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society killed a two-year investigative report on chemical emissions from the giant Catlettsburg, Kentucky refinery of the Ashland Oil company, after company officials protested to the Society. According to The Daily Independent in Ashland, KY, an experienced and highly respected C&E News reporter, Will Lepkowski, was working on an in-depth story about Ashland Oil's long history of environmental violations (the refinery has operated without a permit since 1972). Michael Heylin, who has edited the magazine for 17 years, acknowledged killing the story, but described the incident as an aberration. "It's a sad case," he said, "but it should be kept in perspective. ACS has been very supportive of our work in the past. I don't see this happening again." But there is a heated debate within the ACS over how much independence C&E News should have. Unfortunately, the controversy comes in the middle of an ACS drive to strengthen its Corporate Associates program. As an Ashland Oil executive explained, "It's not the consumer press, it's not even the trade press, it's the press of our Society."

4. MEANWHILE, THERE HAS BEEN A REORGANIZATION AT PHYSICS TODAY!
Gloria Lubkin, who has served as Editor for the past decade, will assume the newly-created position of Editorial Director. Stephen Benka, an Associate Editor, has been appointed Editor. It should be lively; Benka, an astrophysicist, has been editing obituaries.



Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.