Science in Industry

Six years ago, I took a big risk and left a tenured professorship in pediatrics and a senior executive position in the administration at Washington University School of Medicine to take on the challenge of a new career in a science and technology-based company, Monsanto in St. Louis. It's been an exciting and eye-opening experience. Just as we took great pride in the quality of our scientists and their research at Washington University, Monsanto people (and I now consider myself a Monsanto person) take pride in their scientific achievements.

Not long ago at a forum sponsored by the White House, scientists from the public and private sectors came together to talk about the future of our nation's science, including science education and training. As a representative of Monsanto, I was especially pleased when a distinguished biologist from an equally distinguished West Coast research university commented on the quality of science at Monsanto and added that she would have no hesitation in sending her best students to Monsanto to do post-doctoral studies. "Your science is as good as it gets," she added.

Her comment made me proud and also stirred a thought: If I had still been at Washington University or any of our distinguished research universities, she wouldn't have had to make that comment-it goes without saying that the university's research and it researchers are first-rate. The fact that companies like Monsanto have first-rate scientists doing first-rate research doesn't go without saying. So let me come right out and say it: For those young scientists and those who aspire to be scientists who want careers in research, don't fail to include industry in your calculations.

Industry and academia are different, of course. Indeed, they were once very different; one made discoveries and the other created new products. But the ivory tower and the production line have moved much closer together. More and more companies are dependent on superb science and technology.

But there is more to science than research. Part of what drew me from the world of medical research, patient care, and administration into corporate management was the opportunity to participate in the debate over science policy on a national level. All of us, from the purest to the most practical of researchers, operate only with the consent of our culture. Some worry that society's consent can be capricious-that our tradition of free intellectual inquiry into subjects of our own choosing is at risk from the heat of public passions, the pressures of political correctness, or the realities of budget deficits. Perhaps we worry too much. But I believe that we owe it to our society to worry about the quality of our scientific establishment-that means worrying about and dealing with the pressures on it. In industry, science engages most directly with the values, needs, and prejudices of society. From this vantage point, I hope some of you will want to join the discourse-indeed, some of you must.