A group discussion with Professor Edwin G. Conklin on November 19, 1952, two days before his death. Recorded by Gerhard Frankhauser, and Arthur Kemble Parpart.

The physicist, Emanuel Ruben Piore, emigrated from Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1917 at the age of 9. "Mannie," as he was known, became a naturalized citizen in 1924, and obtained both his BA and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin. After gaining nearly ten years experience as a research physicist, first at the Radio Corporation of American then CBS laboratories, he went to work for the Navy, eventually becoming the first civilian to head the Office of Naval Research and playing a major role in the transition of American science from war to peace. Throughout his career, Piore strove to promote research through a close relationship between government, industry, and universities. IBM realized the importance of developing a strong research department and Piore's key role in this endeavor and offered him the position as their first Director of Research. At IBM he continued to encourage research by establishing the IBM Fellow program rewarded to top researchers. Piore held increasingly responsible positions at IBM becoming a vice president, group executive and finally Chief Scientist. He served as a member of IBM's advisory board well after he retired. The Piore papers contain material relating to his latter years at IBM as Vice President and Chief Scientist, as well as some of his time spent on the Board of Directors. In addition, there are materials, though sparse, concerning his work with the Navy. An extensive series of speeches and lectures illustrates Piore's commitment to scientific research and national policy. In addition to his professional correspondence, the papers contain material pertaining to Piore's involvement in professional organizations such as the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Science, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and the American Philosophical Society. A number of professional and personal photographs are also found within the papers.

A physicist with the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Walter Goad became interested in molecular biology in the mid-1960s, devoting nearly all of his research to the analysis, storage and retrieval of information relating to nucleic acid sequences by the early 1970s. He was among the founders of GenBank, the world's first nucleic acid database, and was influential in the development of computational techniques for the analysis of DNA sequences. In the late 1980s, he served on the steering committee overseeing the establishment of the Human Genome Project. The Goad Papers relate primarily to the establishment and early operation of GenBank, the early phases of the Human Genome Project, and, more generally, to Goad's role as godfather of the new field of bioinformatics.

The material in the collection is an assembly of unrelated recording collections made by multiple collectors. This collection consists of recordings on wire or phonograph discs sent by the APS Library to the Library of Congress in December 1970 in exchange for duplication of the material on to archival reel-to-reel tapes. The original formats are housed at the Library of Congress.