December 4, 1946

Dr. Frank Aydelotte

Institute for Advanced Study

Princeton, New Jersey

Dear Frank:

I find it necessary to write to you to explain my situation, and the necessity which, I am afraid, impels me to ask the Eastman Trust and Oxford University to consider permitting my term as Eastman Professor to be shortened to two academic terms at Oxford, and to cover the period January to June, 1948.

A number of pertinent events here occurred since the appointment as Eastman Professor was given to me. Lee DuBridge has become President of the California Institute of Technology, and has been engaged in making plans for the future. I myself have been working on a proposed program of research which is of the deepest significance to me. This is a plan for a vigorous attack on the scientific fundamentals of biology and medicine, by the modern techniques of the basic sciences.

The Rockefeller Foundation has provided some support for this work for the period 1945-46, and is considering the matter of a large grant, to extend over a number of years. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis has just made the Institute a grant of $300,000, for a five year period, for work to be carried on under my direction. The California Institute itself has received a bequest of $2,300,000, and it seems likely that this bequest will also be used to further the general program for which I have been working.

In order that the program be enabled to progress at a satisfactory rate during the next year or two, I shall, I believe, find it necessary to devote considerable attention to it during the year 1947. I propose also, of course, to carry on my own researches during this time, but a good bit of my effort must be devoted to the job of getting other people at work on the program. President DuBridge feels, as I now do, that it would be very difficult for me to get away from Pasadena by September, and that I should ask the Eastman Trust to consider the possibility of permitting me to be in residence at Oxford during the second term and the third term of the academic year 1947-48, but not during the first term. I accordingly make the request that this be considered.

I am sure that I shall learn a great deal from my residence at Oxford, and that the experience of being there will be valuable to me. I hope also that the lectures that I give, and the discussions that I have there, will be of value to the Oxford people. I would not like to give up the appointment to Oxford, nor do I think that it will be necessary to do so. My wife still hopes that I can find it possible to leave Pasadena in September, but I think that she now recognizes that it would be a great strain for me to attempt to do this, under the circumstances that have now arisen.

Please tell me what you think about my proposal. Should I write to the registrar at Oxford?

I shall be glad to see you in New York in January.

Sincerely Yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:par

cc: L. A. DuBridge