Report on the International Science Foundation.

During the past two years the Royal Society of New Zealand was approached by the International Science Foundation having headquarters in San Francisco; and the Society joined the Foundation as a participating member. This does not involve a membership fee or other financial obligation.

The International Science Foundation was established in 1954. Its aim is to develop a complete information on scientific and engineering organisations in the United States, information which will assist visiting scientists and engineers to contact scientists and engineers working in their special field of interest; to arrange itineraries to include centres of special interst in public, commercial, and private institutions where technological and fundamental researches are conducted, to assist scientists and engineers to arrange periods for study or research in institutions having special facilities for their research, etc. Regional foundations are being set up now in other metropolitan areas in the United States.

The scientific resources of the San Francisco Bay area are now surveyed in a recent publication from the headquarters. This catalogues 619 societies, associations, etc.

As a participating member, the Royal Society of New Zealand is the initial contact for scientists and engineers intending to visit the United States and requiring information on the assistance which they can seek from the International Science Foundation. It is presumed that visitors from the United States will seek similar aid from the participating members outside the United States, and it is likely that New Zealand scientists and engineers visiting countries other than the United States will find the participating members in those countries of assistance to them.

In view of the above, it is clear that the function of participating member in the International Science Foundation is proper to the Royal Society of New Zealand and such association strengthens a function which the Society has been performing in the past. It is hoped that members and non-members of the Society will avail themselves of the service which the Foundation offers.

L. R. Richardson.