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i recall John Janovy Jr. mentioning in one of his books that he studied simple to do experiments on bird and insect parasites (local) so he wouldn't have to spend his time groveling for expensive grants.
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Do scientists who are “offered the world” in management positions but turn them down count? Bc in that case Feynman (with a few exceptions such as the NASA committee) religiously turned down admin positions. Didn’t review papers. Often didn’t even join clubs like AAAS
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In modern times Fengio repeatedly refused the overtures to join any big tech AI lab as more than a consultant Wanted to stay in academia and continue his work there
Or if you mean stories of less research oversight in general, most of the physicists and mathematicians of the WW2-era wanted the US to commit to more basic research since it did comparatively very little back then I talk about that a bit in this piece:
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Although that’s a bit complicated. Pre Uncle Sam’s massive funding of basic research, it’s true much of the research $$ was for applied, short term projects But the bureaucracy that comes with modern federal grant dollars is far far worse per dollar. But there are more dollars
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