Harvard scientists are most concerned about theelimination of the Department of Energy because itsubsidizes much of the research at the Universityin physics, materials science, environmentalresearch and geoscience.

The Department of Energy's direct spending inMassachusetts totaled $130 million in 1994, $5million of which went to Harvard researchers.

The Department says that the proposed cutswould force it to terminate support for 2,000scientists at universities.

"The [Energy Department] cuts will have afairly significant impact on the performers ofresearch," said Dr. Martha Krebs, director of theOffice of Energy Research at the Department ofEnergy. "The Republicans say they want to supportbasic science, At least in the way they haveallowed the Department of Energy to be cut, theyare hurting basic science big time."

Krebs said that under the budget blueprint, theEnergy Department will be forced to close some ofits research facilities, thus preventing studentsfrom doing their thesis research there.

"We're talking an impact on thousands ofstudents." Krebs said.

Baird Professor of Science and Chair of thePhysics Department Gary J. Feldman. whose work inexperimental particle physics is entirelysupported by the Department of Energy, said hisbudget has been cut by four to six percent in thelast two years, and if the Energy Department iseliminated, he is unsure about where his fundingwill come from.

"Support for science has been decreasing, whichis hurting [my] research efforts," Feldman says."And now, I have no idea where my funding willcome from."

As the cuts become more concrete, many inHarvard's science community are concerned abouttheir research and about the future of science.

"I think everybody is worried," said McKayProfessor of Applied Physics Robert M. Westervelt."We don't know what the final outcome will be, butthe situation does not look very good."

Westervelt added, "We are all very worriedabout how that will affect the training of thenext generation of scientists."

The cuts in federal aid for civilian researchwill also mean fewer research opportunities forgraduate students and post-doctoral students.

"The number of graduate students we admit isbased on the number of them that we can supportand so we will probably limit our graduate studentenrollment accordingly," Feldman said.

Members of the scientific community are alsoworried that fewer people will go into thesciences because they will find that they cannotobtain the appropriate funding for theirprospective research.

"[The cuts] will reduce the ability to turn outexcellent young people and so some of the mostinnovative research will be hurt," said Dean ofthe Division of Applied Sciences Paul C. Martin'51. "It will probably have deleterious effects onmotivating people in the long term in going inthis direction."