AEC Grants Do Not Meet CEA's Needs

Harvard physicists may be unable to initiate new research at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator next year because of the Atomic Energy Commission's failure to increase funding of individual Harvard researchers and of the CEA.

Although both the AEC's yearly grants of $1.35 million to Harvard researchers and of $35 million to the CEA will remain constant, general inflation causes five to six per cent yearly decrease in the purchasing power of these funds.

Depreciation

Francis N. Pipkin, professor of Physics, who is in charge of AEC grants to Harvard, said that the funds granted to Harvard researchers for equipment will depreciate about &80,000 this year. This, he said, will seriously affect CEA research.

"We can do fewer experiments and hire fewer people; we can't undertake new projects," Pipkin said. "In time, we will have to reduce the number of research associates, junior faculty members, and junior graduate students," he added.

CEA director Caspar Wooldridge said that the funding shortage "will put a damper on our operations, but we will continue to do our best with these limits."

Others, Too

In addition to Harvard researchers, M.I.T., Tufts, Northeastern, S.M.T.I., and Oakridge Laboratories also use the CEA facilities and may be similarly affected by the lack of additional funds.

Both Pipkin and Wooldridge noted that there are no other available sources which could supplement the current CEA income.