Professor Detlev Bronk, President of the National Academy of Sciences, joins me in extending the Academy’s welcome to you—our friends and colleagues of many countries. We are grateful to you for having come so far to share with us your friendship and your knowledge.

Dr Bronk and I wish that we could adequately express the many special reasons why the friendly associations of international gatherings such as this give so much pleasure to American Scientists. It is in part because we Americans have so recently come from your native lands. The brothers of your fathers built our nation. Your ancestors are our ancestors too.

Another reason for a feeling of close association stems from the fact that our science has grown from seeds imported by our teachers who first studied in your lands. From the days of Franklin on, we have had a deep debt of gratitude for this friendly nurturing of our scientific education.