The President's Scientist

"This country has built the greatest machine for research and development in the world. We have to use it to solve our problems."

These words, spoken last week by Frank Press, echo statements that he has been making for nearly two decades as an adviser to Government agencies on subjects ranging from space missions to earthquake prediction. As head of the department of earth and planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Press has always had some clout in Washington. But not as much as he will soon have with the Carter Administration. The President has named Press, 52, his science adviser, and by doing so revealed the depth of his own commitment to arms control; Press, in addition to his other credentials, is one of the world's leading authorities on the detection of underground nuclear explosions.

To a capital that relishes surprises, the official announcement of Press's appointment was anticlimactic. The M.I.T. professor has actually been ensconced in the Executive Office Building since mid-February, attending meetings next door at the White House and even testifying before House and Senate committees. Though some Congressmen occasionally object to taking testimony from unconfirmed appointees, none has balked at listening to Press. Explains one Congresswoman simply: "He knows what he's talking about."

A native of Brooklyn and a graduate of New York's City College, the precise, soft-spoken Press did his doctoral studies at Columbia University and worked with Geophysicist Maurice Ewing to develop a highly sensitive seismograph that can detect even the slightest earth tremors. The device, known as the Press-Ewing seismograph, is now one of the standard tools of earth scientists around the world. Press was also one of the organizers of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which began, in 1957, as a multidisciplined, worldwide scientific investigation of the earth and the space around it. IGY eventually grew into an extended exploration of Antarctica, where a newly discovered mountain was named Mount Press in honor of the scientist.

Press demonstrated additional versatility by his involvement in the 1970 experiment in which a spent Saturn rocket, used to launch an Apollo mission, was crashed onto the moon. The resulting impact, measured by seismographs left on the lunar surface by earlier missions, enabled Press and his fellow seismologists to determine the characteristics of the moon's crust. In 1974 Press led a delegation of U.S. scientists on a tour of Chinese earthquake research centers and returned with the amazing news that the country had an army of 10,000 scientists and 100,000 amateurs engaged in collecting earthquake data.

Dual Role. Press, who plans to spend what spare time he finds in his new role reading about earthquake forecasting, also managed to transmit his love of science and teaching to his children. His daughter Paula is a teacher and is married to a graduate student of public health; his son William is a professor of astronomy at Harvard.

Press began his Government work in 1956 as a consultant to the Navy. He later developed the seismic techniques for detecting and measuring nuclear tests. He acknowledges that this experience may have played some part in his appointment as a presidential adviser. But his new role will include more than spying on Soviet nuclear tests. Says he: "This job is not discipline oriented; it's science oriented."

There is also more to Press's new responsibilities than advising the President. He has, in addition, been named director of the newly created Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), designed to help set federal science policies and to coordinate Government research. In either role, Press insists, "my job is not to push for the programs of a particular segment of the scientific community or to argue for bigger budgets. I'm the President's scientist, and what he needs is an expert, not an advocate." Beyond any doubt, Frank Press meets that requirement.

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