February 23, 1938
Dear Warren:
I was pleased to learn from Professor Millikan of the action of your Board on our
application, and I wish to express to you my thanks for your interest in our work.
I am of course aware of the fact that our plans for organic chemistry not only have
been developed with the aid of your continued advice but also are based on your initial
suggestion and encouragement; and I can foresee that I shall be indebted to you also
for the opportunity of carrying on my own scientific work in the future to as great
an extent as I have been during the past six years.
I had two extended talks with Dr. Wrinch, who also spoke at our seminar at Cornell.
I was greatly disappointed in her. She did not present as good a case for her theory
as do her published papers. I shall send you my report about her soon.
I am very much interested in protein structure, and since talking with Dr. Wrinch
it has seemed to me that I should prepare a paper on my ideas. I have been averse
to doing this because of their speculative nature; they are, however, superior to
Dr. Wrinch's, in my opinion.
Would you advise me about Dr. R. B. Corey, formerly with Wyckoff? He has been working
here during the last year of his appointment as Associate of the Rockefeller Institute,
and has brought some apparatus with him. He is now working, at my suggestion, on
diketopiperazine, and his results provide very valuable information regarding the
interactions of the polypeptide backbone. It is planned that he continue studying
simple crystals related to proteins and also work on proteins themselves. He is an
able and well-trained man, and I think that our x-ray program would be aided immensely
if he could be retained. On the other hand, the Institute has not planned to add another
man to the permanent staff, and moreover, no suitable appointment was mentioned in
our tentative budget. Do you think that it would be wise to offer temporary appointment
as Senior Fellow in Research to Corey, perhaps for a definite term of three years?
I believe that his salary could be included in the molecular-structure budget of $15,000.00
(of which $5,000.00 is provided by the Institute). Would you consider $3000 a suitable
salary? I do not know what salary he receives from the Rockefeller Institute. He is
married, and is forty years old. He served as instructor at Cornell from 1923 to 1928
and was with Wyckoff from 1928 to 1937.
There are some additional problems connected with our organic program on which I should
like to have your advice. They are outlined on the accompanying pages
Todd has written that he is applying for the organic professorship at King's College,
London, the decision to be made early this month. We may thus lose him before his
visit, which is planned for the month beginning March 11th. I have written him asking
that he stop in New York to see you.
English is doing well with his bean-test hormone, traumatin, and Buchman's work on
vitamin B2 analogs is progressing. Buchman is a fine man to have in the laboratory; he is interested
in the problems of all the research men and helps with advice. He has a wide knowledge
of organic reactions. He will be appointed Senior Fellow in Research next year, without
stipend.
An International Fellow, Delbrück, is now here in Biology, working on bacteriophage.
He has impressed by very favorably. His training in physics is good and he attacks
biological problems in a sensible way. He understands their nature, whereas Dr. Wrinch
does not.
I am getting more interested in biological problems every day, and am anxious to see
our new program in effect.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
