Science Island

At 13, Jeffrey Lukens of South Orange, N.J. got so fascinated with biology that he ordered a frozen cat by mail and dissected it at home. The outraged family housekeeper called the A.S.P.C.A., which promptly called the boy's father. Industrial Consultant David L. Lukens, who fired the housekeeper. Then Lukens started investigating science opportunities for his son. Last week Lukens' three-year search resulted in the year's most unusual science-for-youth project.

What Lukens wanted was a topnotch summer science camp for his boy. Finding none good enough, he thought of starting his own. The clincher: a casual hotel conversation that Lukens overheard about Gushing Island in Maine's Casco Bay. Long a fashionable summer colony, the 156-acre island was the site of Fort Levett, an obsolete Army base for which the Government was vainly asking $177,000.

Taking a deep breath, Lukens offered far less--and wound up the owner of 31 buildings and 125 acres. His plan: rename the place Science Island and make it a summer center for the most ambitious high school science students in the land.

To carry out the plan, Lukens formed the nonprofit National Youth Science Foundation, won backing from some top industrialists, including Vitro Corp.'s Charles S. Payson, Sun Oil's George L. Pew, Upjohn Co.'s E. Gifford Upjohn. They put up $100,000, the start of a campaign for industry-financed "camp-ships" for the kids, who will pay only incidental expenses, v. a $375 cost to the camp for a four-week stay. The program: experimental research, visits from Nobel prizewinners, along with swimming, tennis and field trips to the Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass.

Science Island will not be ready for another year, but this summer the camp will get under way on the campus of Maine's small (380 students) Nasson College in Springvale. Last week Nasson got an $18,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the job, began recruiting 50 bright students from 1,500 schools in the Northeast. Top priority: "Those who will give of themselves."

As many as 1,000 students from across the nation will eventually descend on Science Island each summer. Founder Lukens is even dreaming of a similar setup on the West Coast. Last week's most eager applicant: Jeffrey Lukens, 16.

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