National Science Foundation Special Committee on Medical Research Records

In January, 1955, at the request of the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Oveta Culp Hobby, the National Science Foundation appointed a Special Committee on Medical Research, also known as the Long Committee, to undertake a review and evaluation of the medical research programs of the department. The committee was composed of C.N.H. Long, M.D., Chairman, Edward A. Doisy, Ph.D., Ernest W. Goodpasture, M.D., A. Baird Hastings, Ph.D., Charles B. Huggins, M.D., Colin M. MacLeod, M.D., C. Phillip Miller, M.D., and W.M. Stanley, Ph.D., with Joseph M. Pisani, M.D., serving as Executive Secretary.

Due to the limited time available to the committee, their investigations focused on the largest segments of the department's medical research programs. Included in the final report was discussion of the research activities of the Children's Bureau of the Social Security Administration, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Bureau of State Services of the Public Health Service. By far, however, the committee spent the most time investigating the intramural and extramural research programs of the National Institutes of Health. For each of the institutes at NIH program analyses which included curriculum vitae of researchers, bibliographies, and publications of the institutes were prepared. Meetings were also held with officers of NIH and its institutes. The committee's investigations were summarized in a final report delivered in December, 1955. A revised form of the report is found in the general collection under the call number W20.5 U587 1955.