61. Mr. Baker Whiteasked the President of the Board of Trade on what qualifications Professor P. M. S. Blackett was appointed a member of the National Research Development Corporation.
§ Mr. J. EdwardsProfessor Blackett is one of the first among British physicists and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948. During the war, as Director of Operational Research, Coastal Command, and later Director of Naval Operational Research, he was outstandingly successful in tasks requiring qualities far outside those of the laboratory experimenter. He is a member of the Manchester Research Council, which deals with problems of industrial research. His scientific knowledge and judgment will be of the greatest use to the Corporation, which is already handling inventions requiring a profound appreciation of physics. We are quite satisfied that he will be in every way a most valuable member of the Corporation.