Beckman Turns Sod for Science Center
Orange County industrialist Arnold O. Beckman, a technological pioneer and philanthropist, began a $60-million week of ground-breaking Tuesday, shoveling earth in Irvine for a major science and conference center.
The 45,000-square-foot Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering will be built over the next 15 months on a seven-acre site donated by the Irvine Co. across from the UC Irvine campus.
In addition to the $20-million Irvine center, which will serve as western regional headquarters of the academies, Beckman said he planned to travel to Illinois Friday to break ground for a $40-million Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois.
Center in Illinois
The facility in Illinois, where Beckman earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, will consist of a Center for Materials Science, Computers and Computation and a Center for Biology, Behavior and Cognition.
Joining the Beckmans in Irvine were Frank Press, president of the National Academy of Sciences; Robert M. White, president of the National Academy of Engineering; Thomas H. Nielsen, vice chairman of the Irvine Co., and Ray Catalano, mayor pro tem of Irvine.
Stephen D. Bechtel Jr., head of the worldwide engineering and construction firm that bears the family’s name, as well as project manager for the Beckman Center, delivered the main address.
“Much of America’s high technology research is centered on this coast,” said Bechtel, a former chairman of the National Academy of Engineering. “And much of its high-technology competition is centered on the Pacific’s other shore. Thus it is not only fitting, but also critical that the academies develop these facilities. They will truly make our academies national.”
“In the two decades since the founding of the UCI campus, many significant things have happened in Irvine,” Nielsen said. “None has had any greater significance than today’s ground breaking.”
Catalano told the 100 academics, guests and local officials seated on chairs set on artificial turf under a white tent that he was addressing them in a dual capacity--as “a scholar and a politician.” A professor of social ecology at UC Irvine, Catalano thanked Beckman and Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Co., “for their far-sighted philanthropy” in making the center possible.
But, as sunlight filtered through the high fog, Catalano also injected a populist note into the invitation-only ceremony, observing that many people have a respect for science that borders on awe.
“Such awe is often born of a view that science is a mysterious art, practiced by wizards who are inaccessible to the layman. I believe that it is our obligation to use this new facility to dispel the myth of the scientist as a magician and to demonstrate that the scientific method works best through the widest participation,” Catalano said.
“I invite the academy to join the City of of Irvine in planning an event that would involve citizens and scientists in celebrating the opening of the center,” he said.
Following the ground-breaking ceremonies, an afternoon symposium on “Frontiers in Science and Technology” was held at the Irvine Hilton, with topics ranging from “Protein Structure and Biological Function” to “Future Developments in Computer Technology.”
Chartered by Congress in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences has about 1,500 members. Today, the science and engineering academies, together with a research arm, make up a private research organization with a yearly operating budget of about $100 million. Approximately 75% of the budget comes from consulting contracts with agencies of the federal government, an academy spokesman said.
Beckman’s Donations
Over the past four years, Beckman has pledged or donated more than $150 million for scientific and technological research, including $50 million to Caltech for another center to be known as the Beckman Institute.
In making his recent grants, Beckman has focused on two concerns: shortening the time between academic breakthroughs in science and their practical application; and ethical issues raised by such developments as genetic engineering and artificial intelligence.
Progress in such areas, Beckman said, requires “getting public acceptance of some of these changes.” Sometimes, he said, “a mixture of religious belief and fear” can slow down development. “We need to keep the general public informed and educated,” he said.
Scientists, Beckman said in his remarks to the ground-breaking audience, sometimes have a tendency to push ethical problems “onto the back burner until they reach crisis proportions.”
When that happens, he said, the U.S. Congress has a tendency to provide--overnight--”magic solutions” which are not helpful.
Tapping the Best Minds
This situation was a factor motivating Beckman’s decision to endow the center.
“We want the careful considerations of the best minds we can find,” Beckman told the crowd. “This was a concept whose time has come.”
The source of Beckman’s fortune is a series of inventions, beginning in 1935 while Beckman was still on the Caltech faculty, where he earned a doctorate in photochemistry. Beckman’s “acidimeter,” which enabled Southern California citrus processors to gauge the acidity of lemon juice, was the first of many devices developed by Beckman Instruments Inc. In 1982, the Fullerton-based company merged with SmithKline Corp. of Philadelphia, becoming SmithKline Beckman Corp. Beckman declines to say how much he realized from the sale, but estimates at the time ranged as high as half a billion dollars.
Most of the grants and donations are made by the tax-exempt Arnold O. and Mabel Beckman Foundation, run by Beckman and several aides out of an Irvine office.
Board Membership
In addition to Beckman and his wife, board members include Donald A. Strauss, a longtime Beckman Instruments aide who handles many of the day-to-day details of the foundation, as well as former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans and former Defense Secretary Harold Brown, who was president of Caltech from 1969 to 1977.
Before the ground breaking, Beckman said the foundation planned no large-scale grants in the next four to six months.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I need a little breathing spell, time to review what we’ve done.”
