R.W. Oldford and M.E. Thompson
Working Paper 99-06
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
University of Waterloo
ABSTRACT
In 1999, approximately 40 leading scientists, statisticians, public science administrators, and journalists were invited to Herstmonceaux Castle in Hailsham, England for the fourth conference on Statistics, Science, and Public Policy. The theme of this conference was ``The Two Cultures?'' in recognition of the fortieth anniversary of C.P. Snow's famous Rede Lecture where the growing gulf between the traditional culture of the arts and the humanities and the newer culture of science was first identified.
The papers presented in this technical report are the written versions of two talks. The first is that presented by R.W. Oldford in a session devoted to ``The University Culture''. The second, by M.E. Thompson, was presented in a session entitled ``Science and the Public Purse''.
These papers, prepared in concert for the conference, took issue with the identification of distinct cultures and instead chose to concentrate on drawing attention to the ways in which intellectual culture has shifts and the effects these shifts have on the role of the members of the university and on the public support given to research.