June 23, 1945

Dr. Reuben Wood

Maryland Research Laboratories

Post Office Box 2706

Washington 13, D. C.

Dear Reuben:

Let me assure you that I am pleased to have you address me by my first name. I think that the rather austere attitude which people take toward me in this respect may be the result of the example set by Holmes, for reasons best known to himself.

I had not heard anything about the change in status of MRL. It seems to me that you would be wise to leave on August 1, unless you are made the director of the laboratory.

I am sure that you will have no difficulty in getting a suitable job. If you are interested in any particular industrial firm - Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Westinghouse, Du Pont, Shell Development, United States Rubber - let me know and I will write a letter to the firm recommending that you be given a job. The above list might also include Eastman Kodak. All of these places have good research laboratories, in which interesting work is done, and I am sure that you could get a good job in any one of them. I also think that the work would turn out to be interesting. My own limited experience has suggested to me that I could become engrossed in the field of work carried on by these laboratories. It is true, of course, that there is not such great freedom of personal and scientific activity as in a university.

The immediate possibilities of appointment at a university that are known to me are limited. The University of Buffalo would like to have a man immediately to teach elementary and advanced physical chemistry, and to supervise research is this field. I visited the University of Buffalo once; it is my opinion that it can be given an intermediate classification as to desirability. I have a feeling that the job is available because of the resignation of Captain Frazer, now at Aberdeen. Perhaps you know him. However, this is just surmise on my part.

Another possibility in which you might be interested is Pomona College. If you are interested, I suggest that you write to Doctor W. C. Pierce, who has just been appointed head of the chemistry department there. Usually they have a three-man department, so that two more men need to be appointed - Norman Elliott has resigned. Doctor Stanley Wilson, an old fellow who has been teaching in China, and who worked on our Division 8 project for a year before going to Pomona temporarily a year ago, is to continue for another year, and perhaps they do not plan to make an appointment until a year from now. However, if you feel that you are interested, I suggest that you write to Pierce, at the Technological Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. If you do write to him, let me know, and I shall write also.

If you have a free period for awhile after August 1,you might be interested in spending some time at the California Institute. I think that you could be put on our Division 8 project, which probably will run for another year. Or you might be given appointment as, for example, Arthur A. Noyes Fellow - you might wish to carry out some magnetic studies, with use of the oxygen meter. I think that the magnetic susceptibility of a number of the diamagnetic gases, such as methane, should be reinvestigated, and you may have other uses of the instrument in mind. For example, I doubt that the susceptibility of the hexafluorides of sulfur, selenium, and tellurium has been studied. The salary that the Institute could pay you would depend upon the nature of your appointment.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:gw