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Presidential Address

Immunology As a Basic and Applied Science^1,2,

From the Department of Microbiology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06510

Abstract

Fellow members of the Society, friends, and guests: The addresses of retiring presidents, which I have had the pleasure of hearing over the last 25 years, have fallen into several predictable categories. Three quarters have been reviews of a field or have dealt with the individual speaker's personal research and its consequences. The remainder have dealt with broader topics or with the state of our society. I have chosen to prepare an essay of the latter type.

Science at present is confronted by a crisis of public confidence. Basic research appears to many thoughtful citizens increasingly remote from applications in the sphere of daily life and the applications, when they are visible, often seem to harm more than they help. In the face of the numerous problems created by increasing population, increasing urbanization of our society, and increasing individual consumption and waste, it is not surprising that the priority of basic investigations in the competition for public funds has declined (1).

Footnotes

¹ Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Immunologists, Chicago, April 14, 1971.

² A list of the references given in Tables VIII and IX and in the legends of Figures 7 to 11 is available on request to the author.