ABSTRACT
Almost a year before the war ended, MIT physics chairman John Slater proposed the creation of a postwar Research Laboratory in Electronics (RLE). The university research system that emerged from the war was the product of mutual need and shared enthusiasm among patrons and performers. Postwar research universities, however, were increasingly compartmentalized institutions, penetrated to varying degrees and in various parts by external influence. As the federal research economy was forming during the late 1940s, the program having the most immediate impact on higher education was the GI Bill created by the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of June 22, 1944. The different arrangements for sponsored research in postwar universities could be located on this disinterested-interested continuum. By 1950 funds for organized research were an integral part of the operations of departments in the physical sciences and could not be replaced by institutional resources should the need arise.
