Overview

It has been nearly 35 years since the peacetime Biology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory was started, born of rather inauspicious conditions. Virtually no facilities were available and most of the wartime scientists had left. So, when we started out, it was obvious to me that something had to be done to reestab- lish research. Even more, because Oak Ridge was not known at that time for its biological work but rather for the separation of Uranium 235, nuclear reactor development, and radioisotope produc- tion, a new tradition had to be promoted. Although good biological work had been done at Oak Ridge during the war to protect the workers and the results of this work were quite excellent, very few installations remained. When we started the work of the Biology Division, it became essential to make it part of the flow of mod rn biology allover the world. As Director, I had to do more than just attract promising scientists. We created an atmosphere conducive to creative research and nurtured all of the other aspects of a productive laboratory. Of course, we carefully prepared the results of our work in publish- able form. We made a sincere effort to invite seminar speakers and lecturers to come to Oak Ridge despite the sacrifices this presented to our early budget. We also had to do something more, and here I "cashed in" on my experience of the previous 15 years.