Gerard Piel

BY GERARD PIEL A Harvard graduate, GERARD PIEL has been president and publisher of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICANsince 1947, and under his aegis the magazine has become one of the most influential periodicals of our day. His belief that the surpluses of the American economy can be converted into a dynamic force for India and for other developing nations in the free world is a forecast of breathtaking possibilities.

GERARD PIEL, who served as science editor of LIFE magazine from 1938 to 1944, assumed the presidency and direction of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN at a most strategic moment, and during the past fifteen years his periodical has become one of the most influential expositors of the atomic age anywhere to be read. The Phi Beta Kappa oration which he delivered at Harvard this June, and which we are happy to publish, will not soon be forgotten.