We moved from the Rockefeller to this place, for temporary quarters and then, within a year or so, we built this and we then could introduce scientific research at the experimental level. And my aim was to develop a group of people who would work as they pleased but, above all, not rewarded to be specialists but rewarded because they were either interested in solving a problem, a very challenging kind of problem, or to clarify a question. And more or less, give or take, that's happened since then, so I do want to say something about the nature of this kind of place; and I've learned a lot of things from people like Professor Rogers Hollingsworth of Madison, Wisconsin, of the University of Wisconsin, about the kind of characteristics these places have that are effective.

First of all, we're small; we have only 40 scientists. We do not pick people according to specialty per se. We are privately funded in large part, although we're now beginning to expand a bit in governmental support. We do not accept grants that are, how shall I say, connected to careerism, or the idea that your merit depends on how much money you get from the Government. We are very interested in having visiting people come from various areas, particularly older people to tell younger people some war stories about what they shouldn't do; telling young people what they should do is usually a mistake – it doesn't work. But we've had a visiting fellows' program since 1982 of over a thousand scientists from all over the world, coming here to do as they please. The only thing they can't do is have a scientific meeting which involves any kind of politics. And finally we are still the home of Neurosciences Research Program which appoints people by vote to a term of seven years, so we get an access to remarkable specialists from all over the world in an international frame. So this little scientific monastery with these characteristics has been able to do some remarkable things.