Donald Stokes' Un-Named Quadrant

Donald Stokes, in his classic monograph (cited nearly 6,000 times), put forth a quadrant typology for research. He famously named three of the quadrants--Bohr's, Edison's and Pasteur's--but did not name a last, fourth, quadrant. Here, we propose a name—Fermi’s quadrant--in which existing learning (e.g., nuclear physics) is a springboard for new human-desired utility (an atom bomb). Fermi’s quadrant is often mistakenly conflated with Pasteur's quadrant, in which existing utility (e.g., improved winemaking insights and technology) is a springboard for curiosity-motivated learning (disproving the scientific theory that life could be spontaneously generated). Instead, the two are complementary but opposite: Fermi's quadrant is translational (translating learning into utility), while Pasteur's quadrant is reverse translational (reverse translating utility into learning). The implications for research policy are profound: our current research enterprise focuses almost solely on Fermi's quadrant research at the expense of Pasteur's quadrant research, even though both are critical to a healthy research enterprise.