Roundtable: Physics Research in Industry

Three weeks before the stock market crash on Black Monday, 19 October, PHYSICS TODAY conducted a roundtable discussion on the current state of US industrial research. The eight participants who gathered at the Washington office of the American Institute of Physics on 29 September included the heads of research at four prominent manufacturing companies, a former research minister of France, the deputy director of a national laboratory that often collaborates with major corporations, an administrator at a leading technical university, and the only member of Congress who holds a DSc. Questions were posed by PHYSICS TODAY editors. As the following excerpts from the two‐hour discussion reveal, the participants spoke candidly about problems and practices, ranging over such matters as technological competitiveness, research management, physics education, technology transfer from industrial and national laboratories, and government R&D policies.