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Harvard faculty members met with enthusiasm the appointment of Jerome B. Wiesner as the 13th president of M. I. T.
George B. Kistiakowsky, Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, called the selection of Wiesner an "excellent choice, one that should provide enlightened leadership for the M. I. T. community and for the city of Cambridge in general."
Kistiakowsky, who worked with Wiesner on the 1945 Los Alamos atomic bomb project, described him as a "thoughtful person, liberal, anti-militaristic, a man concerned with the problems of the young.
"As Provost last year, he was very successful in handling student protests, far more successful in handling them than Harvard's administration," Kistiakowsky said.
Abram J. Chayes, professor of Law, said he was "delighted with the selection," adding that he sees the administration moving away "from the narrow scientific and technical programs that have characterized M. I. T. in the past."
Noting that Wiesner has been outspoken in his opposition to the Indochina war and the anti-ballistic missile program, Chayes predicted that Wiesner will attempt to "devote more time to the integration of scientific work with the problems of the community."
Chayes commented that although M. I. T. has cut back its defense-related research projects-most notably in theschool's ties with the Draper missile-guidance research center in Cambridge-"M. I. T. still needs government funds."
"The school is a scientific institution dependent on research money. The government provides much of that money," Chayes said.
Paul M. Doty, Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry, believes that Wiesner's main job will be strengthening M. I. T.'s non-scientific and technical departments, especially the humanities.
"This department is seriously limited." Doty said, "and I feel that Wiesner will try to remedy this through first-rate appointments to the field."
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