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10.07
William T.
Golden, A Tribute
By TE Staff
William T. Golden died on
Sunday, 7 October 2007, at age 97. An investment
banker by profession and philanthropist by
inclination, Golden and his contributions to
American science and technology are perhaps not
well known by many IEEE members, but they should
be. Golden was described as “a main architect of
American science policy in the 20th Century” in
his New York Times obituary, an acknowledgment
of his influence in defining the federal
government’s expanded role in science and
technology after World War II.
Having studied English and
biology at the University of Pennsylvania ,
Golden spent a year at the Harvard Business
School before starting a career on Wall Street
in 1931. With the outbreak of World War II, he
enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to the
Navy Department’s Bureau of Ordinance in
Washington, where he helped develop war plans
and invented a device for controlling
anti-aircraft guns. After the war, Golden
followed Admiral Lewis Strauss from the Navy
Bureau to the newly-created Atomic Energy
Committee, where he had opportunity to interact
regularly with President Truman and other top
government officials, as well as leading
researchers such as Albert Einstein.
Following the publication of
Vannevar Bush’s landmark report Science: The
Endless Frontier in 1950, Golden played an
influential role in helping guide the
establishment of the National Science Foundation
as the key federal agency responsible for
support of civilian research and development.
At the same time, President
Truman was being pressured to reestablish the
Office of Scientific Research and Development,
which had coordinated the atomic bomb program
during the war. With American forces heavily
committed in Korea and facing a rising Soviet
threat, the Truman Administration was concerned
that a new defense-oriented research agency
would interfere with work already underway at
other federal agencies and laboratories. Golden
was tasked to prepare a report on how the
Nation's scientific resources might be mobilized
to address any wider military emergency.
On 18 December 1950, Golden
presented a memorandum to the President
recommending that he appoint a full-time science
advisor to assist in mobilizing science for
defense purposes and to provide high-level
oversight of the entire Federal science
organization. Truman responded on 19 April 1951
by establishing the Scientific Advisory
Committee to the White House Office of Defense
Mobilization (SAC/ODM), and subsequently
appointing Oliver Buckley of Bell Laboratories
as the first Presidential Science Advisor. The
advisor post and the science advisory committee
survived the Truman Administration, evolving
into the present day Office of Science and
Technology Policy within the Executive Office of
the President and the President’s Council of
Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Golden returned to Wall Street,
where financial success lead to an active second
career in philanthropy and public service. He
played a key role in the founding of the
American Museum of Natural History, serving
until his death as chairman emeritus. An
honorary life governor of the New York Academy
of Sciences, Golden served as the Academy's
president in 1988. In 1991, he co-chaired the
Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and
Government with Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg.
Under the Commission's auspices, Golden and
future Science Advisor Allan Bromley were able
to instigate a twice annual meeting of science
advisors or ministers from each of the G-7 nations
(Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the
United Kingdom and the United States), later joined by
representatives from the European Community and
the Soviet Union.
Recognizing the increasing
importance of science and technology to U.S.
foreign relations, Golden campaigned for nearly
30 years for the appointment of a science
advisor in the U.S. Department of State. That
dream was realized with the appointment of Dr.
Norman P. Neureiter as the first State
Department Science Advisor by then Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright in 2000. Dr. Neureiter
subsequently approached IEEE-USA for assistance,
leading to the creation of
IEEE-USA’s Engineering and Diplomacy Fellowship program.
In 1996, Golden received the
National Academy of Sciences' highest honor, the
Public Welfare Medal. In 2002, he received the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
having served as AAAS Treasurer from 1969-1999.
Among his many publications, Golden edited
Science Advice to the President (1980);
Science and Technology Advice to the President,
Congress, and Judiciary (1988); and Worldwide
Science and Technology Advice to the Highest
Levels of Governments (1991).
In reporting on Golden’s receipt
of the Russel Wright Modern Design Award for
2001, The New York Times wrote, “William T.
Golden is an architect and designer of the first
order, but unlike others, who might sketch
skyscrapers or shape clay, he has helped build
the sturdy edifice that is American scientific
research and helped preserve the natural world
that science strives to understand.”
Clinton Administration Science
Advisor John Gibbons observed of Golden that
“without people like him, there would be no
infrastructure, no research.”
And for that, we all owe William
T. Golden a debt of gratitude.
See Also
"William T. Golden:
Appreciation," Press Release 07-152, National
Science Foundation, 25 October 2007, online at
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110493.
Comments may
be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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