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Date Created:
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Keywords:Richard Aiken,Tracy Hall,Lawrence Mitchell,German Democratic Republic
Context:letters regarding visit to the German Democratic Republic
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NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, D.C. 20418 USA
COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Cable Address: NARECO TWX #: 7108 22 9589
February 27, 1979
Dr. Richard C. Aiken Department of Chemical Engineering University of Utah 3062 MEB
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 Dear Dr. Aiken:
The National Academy of Sciences' Advisory Committee on USSR and Eastern Europe has reviewed favorably your application for a five month visit In the GDR within our program of exchanges with the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic.
As the next step, I should like to invite you to discuss your proposed visit with Dr. H. Tracy Hall in the Department of Chemistry, Brlgham Young University at Provo, who is familiar with the Academy's exchange programs and has kindly agreed to meet with you.
Please contact Dr. Hall at your earliest convenience to arrange an appointment with him. His telephone number Is 37*t-12ll ext. 47*»1.
So that we may reimburse you the cost of round trip travel between Salt Lake City and Provo I am enclosing travel expense vouchers which you should complete and return to me.
We shall notify you of our final decision soon after this meeting has taken place.
Sincerely yours
Lawrence C. Mitchell Staff Director Section on USSR & Eastern Europe
Enclosure: Travel expense vouchers
cc: Dr. H. Tracy Hall
The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering
to serve government and other organizations
Chemistry Department
Brigham Young University
Lawrence C. Mitchell,
14 February 1979
Staff Director
Section on USSR & Eastern Europe National Academy of Sciences National Fesearch Council 2101 Constitution Ave/ Washington, D.C. 20418
Dear Dr. Mitchell:
I have interviewed Dr. Richard C. Aiken this morning
and believe that he will not have any problems in coping with any situation that may arise in his stay in the German Democratic Republic.
His wife did not come to the interview with him so I had to assess her situation through Dr. Aiken. I feel that his wife is also adventurous and psychologically prepared to deal with any conditions that might arise.
The general impression that I obtained from my half hour interview is that Dr. Aiken is a very dedicated,success oriented professional individual with considerable ability. He and his wife are concerned about knowing the language, culture of the GDR and of making a good impression on the people there.
Sincerely yours,
H. Tracy Hall, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
226 ESC, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602 (801) 374-1211, Extension 3667
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, D.C. 20418 USA
COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Cable Address: NARECO TWX #: 7108 22 9569
February 27, 1979
MEMORANDUM
TO:
FROM:
Dr. H. Tracy Hall, Chemistry Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Lawrence C. Mitchell, Staff Director, Section on USSR S Eastern Europe
SUBJECT: Interview of Exchange Candidate:
Dr. Richard C. Aiken
I want to thank you for so kindly agreeing to interview the above candidate(s) for the Academy's exchange program with the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic.
All the candidates have already been screened by the NAS Advisory Committee on USSR and Eastern Europe and found qualified scientifically. Therefore, the main point of the interview is to judge the suitability of candidates, and of their spouses if they are going to accompany them, from other points of view. While non-scientific considerations might not enter into selection of exchange scientists to go the the UK, France, or other noncommunist countries, they necessarily enter into exchanges with the USSR and Eastern Europe. In fact, the NAS feels a special responsibility not to send to the Soviet Union persons who might find the physical and psychological hardships of life there intolerable or whose behavior would reflect discreditably upon themselves, the NAS, or the United States. Conditions in Eastern Europe (outside the USSR) are relatively easier and vary greatly from country to country; occasional incidents remind us that they are not comparable to the West. The purpose of the interview, then, is to ascertain whether the candidate and accompanying spouse (if there is one) realistically appreciate the difficulties of the situation into which the scientist is prospectively entering and to evaluate the capability of coping with it.
There is attached a list of questions that may be helpful as a guide for points to cover in an interview. However, I hope you will feel free to range out as your own judgment indicates.
Please return the file on the candidate, together with your written comments, which will, of course, be held confidential.
Your assistance to the Academy is greatly appreciated.
Attachments:
1.	Subjects for Consideration in Interviews
2.	Fi1e of Applicant
3.	Return Envelope
The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering
to serve government and other organizations
1/79
EE
SUBJECTS FOR CONSIDERATION IN INTERVIEWS
1.	Is the applicant familiar with the society of the country he/she intends to visit? Does the applicant know what difficulties to expect in terms of physical aspects of work and living? in psychological terms, e.g., social isolation? Is the applicant really prepared for the cultural shock?
2.	Does the applicant have other interests to help him/her and any accompanying family members maintain morale? Does the applicant understand that he/she will not necessarily enjoy social relations with his/her foreign colleagues of the sort he/she enjoys in the US?
3.	Is the applicant realistic about the existence and operation of the security system in the country he/she intends to visit? (This, of course, varies in ominousness from country to country in Eastern Europe.)
4.	If a male applicant plans to be accompanied by his family, is his wife capable of coping with the potential sources of frustration of daily living in Eastern Europe? Is his wife (are they both) of an adventurous turn of mind so as to enjoy the novelties in their experience rather than fretting over the frustrations? If the applicant is a married woman planning to be accompanied by her husband, what does he plan to do during the period of foreign residence? In either case, does the accompanying spouse know the language of the foreign country? Does she/he want to learn it?
5.	Is the applicant reasonably well informed about political, social, and cultural life in the United States? Is he/she reasonably well informed about the status of major international problems, e.g., the Middle East, disarmament, the European Security Conference in Geneva, relevant US trade legislation tied to free emigration?
6.	Is tiie applicant reasonably familiar with points of political sensitivity in the foreign country he/she intends to visit? — e.g., the legacy of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968? the Gdansk worker uprising of 1970 in Poland? the sensitive political situation in Yugoslavia, involving the nationality problem and the position of dissident intellectuals?
7.	Are there any special facts which develop from the interview and which were not clearly covered in the application form that ought to be taken into consideration, e.g., health problems?
March 1, 1975
Department of Chemical Engineering University of Utah
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA SHEET
1978-79
NAME: TITLE: BIRTHDATE: EDUCATION:
MEMBERSHIPS:
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Richard Chalon Aiken
Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering March 4, 1948
B.S.> Ch.E.i University of Illinois, 1970 M.S., Ch.E., Princeton University, 1972 Ph.D., Ch.E., Princeton University, 1973
American Institute of Chemical Engineers; Alpha Chi Sigma; Phi Beta Kappa; Tau Beta Phi; Phi Kappa Phi; Phi Eta Sigma; Phi Lambda Epsilon; Sigma Xi
Graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Illinois Rank in Class: 97 percent; 1st of 30 Chemical Engineers
ACADEMIC
EXPERIENCE: Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Utah, 1977-
Visiting Professor, Department for Computer Science, Kunglia Techniska Hoegskolan, Stockholm, Sweden, 1975.
Assistant I; Lectures and Research, Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule, Technische Chemische Laboratorium, Zuerich, Switzerland, 1974-75.
INDUSTRIAL
EXPERIENCE: Standard Oil of California, Chevron Research Company: research engineer, 1975-77; technical and economic evaluation of alternate energy projects; coal gasification and combustion; gas and water purification.
Ciba Geigy, Basel, Switzerland; Consultant 1974-75; wastewater treatment; reactor safety.
Mobil Oil Research Company; consultant, 1972-73; physical • properties of hydrocarbon gases and liquids.
Monsanto Chemical Company, Creve Coeur, Missouri, Summer 1969; Computation Division.
Continental Can Company, Chicago, Illinois, Summer, 1968; research engineer, adhesives.
Biographical data, Richard C. Aiken
2
PRIMARY RESEARCH
INTERESTS:	Gas purification, (e.g. mass transfer and reaction in
aerosols) processing of heavy crude oils (e.g. hydrofining) parametric effects on adsorption (e.g. solvents effects on chromatographic reactors).
PUBLICATIONS ..	. •	.' '
1.	Aiken, R. C., Klaus, R., and D. W. T. Rippin, "Simulated Binary Isothermal
Adsorption in Periodic Counter-Current Columns," AIChE J. 23, 579 (1977).
i
2.	Aiken, R. C., and L. Lapidus, "Problem Approximation for Stiff Ordinary
Differential Equations," AIChE J. 21, 1227 (1975).
3.	Aiken R. C., and L. Lapidus, "Pseudo Steady State Approximation for the
Numerical Integration of Stiff Kinetic Systems," AIChE J. 21, 817 (1975).
4.	Aiken, R. C., and L. Lapidus, "An Effective Numerical Integration Method
for Typical Stiff Systems," AIChE J. 21, 368 (1974).
5.	Lapidus, L. and R. C. Aiken, "Numerical Integration of Stiff Dynamic
Systems," Trans ASME, series G, 96, 5 (1974).
6.	Aiken, R. C., and L. Lapidus, "Numerical Integration by Singular Perturbation
Techniques," Fourth Iranian Conf. Elect. Eng., Shiraz, Iran, May (1974).
7.	Aiken, R. C., and L. Lapidus, "Numerical Integration of Stiff Chemical
Systems," AIChE-GVC meeting, Nuenchen, Germany, September (1974).
8.	Aiken, R. C., and L. Lapidus, "The Stability of Interacting Populations,"
International J. Systems Science 4, 691 (1973).
9.	Aiken, R. C., "Stiff Kinetic System Solution," meeting of the Swedish
Applied Mathematics Society, Lund, Sweden (1975).
10. Bendall, E., and R. C. Aiken, "Selective Removal of Hydrogen Sulfide from High Pressure Carbon Dioxide by Absorption and Reaction in Aerosols," Rocky Mountain Fuel Symposium (1978).
THE
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
3062 MERRILL ENGINEERING BUILDING SALT LAKE CITY. UTAH 84112 801-581-6915
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
March 12, 1979
Dr. H. Tracy Hall 1711 North Lambert Lane Provo, Utah 84601
Dear Dr. Hall:
Thank you for agreeing to visit with me concerning my proposed trip to Dresden, DDR this Wednesday, March 14, 8:00 a.m. at your home.
I enclosed my rgsumg and look forward to our discussions.
Very truly yours
Richard C. Aiken Assistant Professor
RCA:Ivw
Enclosure