Let’s expand the vision of a new Bell Labs!

Mark Raizen’s commentary “Let’s re-create Bell Labs!” appeared in the October 2018 issue of Physics Today (page 10 ). I liked his idea and was quite taken by the scope of his vision. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was dampened when I read the details of how his idea would work. I understand his desire that fellows “be selected for their track record of exceptional creativity.” However, his assumption that they “could utilize the significant resources of their home institutions for fabrication and diagnostics” means that the research foundation and its fellowships would be available only to scientists at major, research-focused universities.

During my career at public regional universities, I have met many physicists who have great ideas. But due to the lack of resources, high teaching loads, few to no graduate students, and difficulties competing for grants, they never could capitalize on them. Since a large number of physicists work at smaller institutions, the structure that Raizen proposes for research at his Pointsman Foundation simply becomes a continuation of the conceit that only scientists at major institutions have anything to contribute.

I challenge Raizen to broaden his vision to truly maximize the impact of his lab. I recommend creating some fellowships—initially one or two but expanding to 10–20% of the total—explicitly for physicists from less affluent institutions. The new fellowships would, of necessity, be more expensive to implement than the other fellowships, since the foundation would have to provide the additional support that Raizen currently expects from home institutions.

Expanding the cadre of fellows and helping to strengthen research capabilities at smaller institutions offsets the added expense and would have an impact beyond the original intent outlined in the commentary. A research institute that includes the broadest possible group of physicists maximizes the potential for discovery and innovation and also significantly benefits students at all levels as faculty return to their home institutions.

Raizen ends his commentary with a rousing call for action. Expanding his proposal to physicists across the profession would make his foundation even more successful.