8 June 1954

Mr. Ben May

P. O. Box 1186

Mobile 7, Alabama

Dear Mr. May:

I thank you for your letter of 17 May, and your notes to me about Dr. Fleming and about vitamin E.

Knowing your interest in medicine and medical research, I have decided to write to you about a problem that we are hoping to solve. You know about the work that we have carried out on sickle-cell anemia and related diseases. I have been hoping that we could apply the same method of investigation, involving the new idea about abnormalities of molecules in relation to disease, to some other diseases, possibly to cancer, although as yet I do not have a well-formed plan of attack on cancer. Our new laboratory, which should be ready in about a year and a half, will provide the space for increase of our activities, and some of our financial problems will be taken care of, I hope, by the new Rockefeller grant.

We have a number of young men with M.D. degrees working in the laboratories all of the time. These are young doctors who have just finished their medical training or their internship, and are getting additional training in the basic sciences, and additional experience in research, in order to prepare them for a career in medical research.

We have need for a permanent member of our staff who is trained in medicine, and who can serve as adviser to the young M.D.'s who are working here, and to the other members of our staff who are interested in medical problems. He would also be in a position to carry on effective medical research himself. Professor Beadle and I are hoping that some way can be found to finance the appointment of a Professor of Medical Research in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the California Institute of Technology. His duties would involve joint activities with the Division of the Biological Sciences also.

I am writing to ask if you could help us to finance the appointment of a Professor of Medical Research. We would, of course, have to offer the man permanent appointment, and the California Institute of Technology does not have funds that would permit this to be done. The salary would have to be a good one - probably $10,000 per year initially - because outstanding medical men have to be reasonably well paid. I estimate that we need an endowment of about $400,000, to cover the salary for the professorship and a minimum amount of support for the man's research.

Inasmuch as the arrangement with the Rockefeller Foundation is on a matching basis, a gift of $200,000, to endow the professorship, would be matched by an equal amount from the Rockefeller Foundation, and would permit the appointment to be made.

May I ask what you think of this plan. Would you be interested in endowing a professorship in medical research in this Institute? I am sure that the action would be a really significant one for medical research. You may remember that in the meeting in Washington I talked about this plan, and recommended that the Public Health Service consider it.

With best regards, I am

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:W