Harnessing Science to Solve Global Poverty and Hunger

Abstract

Text of the Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture delivered by Peter Doherty, Nobel Laureate, Chairman of the Immunology Department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, during CGIAR International Centers Week 1998. Doherty describes the long term nature of research on scientifically complex subjects like AIDS and East Coast Fever, and the challenges of managing this research in a way that permits scientists to pursue long term solutions rather than less consequential, shorter term results. He encourages donors to provide the kind of sustained, unrestricted support that enables CGIAR Centers to pursue long-term objectives that are intrinsically uncertain but that are fundamental to substantive scientific progress.