War Work Gives 'Medal for Merit' To Physicist Hunt

Frederick V. Hunt Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Sciences, was one of four prominent scientists awarded a Presidential Medal for Merit for secret war work, the United States Navy announced last night.

The citation accompanying the medal did not disclose the precise nature of Professor Hunt's contribution, but stated that it concerned work on submarine and anti-submarine devices. Secrecy has been maintained, the citation explained, because the work is of "continuing importance to the security of the country."

Awarded Honorary Degree

Local speculation, however, liked the award with Professor Hunt's research as director of the University's now-defunct Underwater Sound Laboratory, for which he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University in 1945. The eulogy with the degree said: "Originator and able chief of one of Harvard's large war laboratories; his ingenuity has served the Navy in its battles below the waves."

Professor Hunt, also chairman of the new Department of Engineering Science and Applied Physics, was in New York last night, attending an Acoustical Society meeting, when the Navy made its announcement, Previously, he had been in Washington en government business.