Panelist

Ted Postol examined the influence of Department of Defense and Department of Energy funding on university research, bluntly identifying "the elephant in the room" as money and the distorting effects of directed funding on academic inquiry. He raised three interrelated concerns: that directed funding restricts researchers' freedom to pursue fundamental questions, that conflicting reimbursement incentives corrupt institutional priorities, and that classified research fundamentally conflicts with universities' educational mission.

Postol delivered one of the conference's most forceful warnings, arguing that "universities cannot pay their debt to society if the service they provide is the prostitute of special interests." His critique resonated strongly with Wiener's own post-war decision to refuse military research funding, placing the question of intellectual independence at the center of any serious discussion about the relationship between innovation, institutional integrity, and the public good.