An important fraction of United States industry adheres to the idea that research of a fundamental character is worthwhile from a practical point of view.
My decision to come to Bell Telephone Laboratories immediately after obtaining my Ph.D. in 1936 was strongly influenced by the fact that my supervisor would be C. J. Davisson.
I was in an industrial laboratory because academia found me unsuitable.
I believe quite simply that the small company of the future will be as much a research organization as it is a manufacturing company.
Most innovation is not done by research institutes and national laboratories. It comes from manufacturing - from companies that want to extend their product reach, improve their costs, increase their returns. What's very important is in-house research.
You can find academic and industrial groups doing some relevant work, but there isn't a focus on building complex molecular systems. In that respect, Japan is first, Europe is second, and we're third.
In view of the experience I had acquired in the field of chemical industry, certain Italian government and industrial bodies entrusted me in 1938 with the task of instituting research and development studies on the production of synthetic rubber in Italy.
Manufacturers account for nearly 60 percent of all industrial research and development.
