Oral history interviews. Phase III: ground-based astronomy, materials science, heavy-ion and nuclear physics, medical physics, and computer-mediated collaborations, 1996-1997.

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Oral history interviews. Phase III: ground-based astronomy, materials science, heavy-ion and nuclear physics, medical physics, and computer-mediated collaborations, 1996-1997.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/78933063

In this third and last phase of the study, five disciplinary fields were studied: ground-based astronomy (divided into observatory builders and observatory users), materials science, heavy-ion and nuclear physics, and medical physics, plus a new category named computer-mediated collaborations in which new techniques of computer science and technology provided a core aspect of the research. A conscience effort was made to look to the future, which meant that these collaborations may not have published research findings. Twenty-one collaborations served as case studies plus three selected for the computer-mediated category. Altogether 78 interviews with scientists who could serve as "informants" were conducted; interview transcripts were analyzed for historical and archival information. Sociologists on the team analyzed all project interviews and produced a typology for multi-institutionsl collaborations. Numerous site visits were made to federal science agencies and the National Archives and Records Administration to discuss archival issues and records policies. Project staff: Joan Warnow-Blewett, project director, Spencer Weart, associate project director, Joel Genuth, project historian, Anthony Capitos, project archivist, Ivan Chompalov, project sociologist, and Wesley Shrum, consulting sociologist.

3.5 linear ft. (85 items)

American Institute of Physics

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SNAC Resource ID: 8222734

Related Entities

There are 8 Entities related to this resource.

Genuth, Joel

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6930wzz (person)

American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations.

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A documentation research project to study the complex issues facing the historical documentation of multi-institutional collaborations in physics and allied sciences. The project aimed to identify patterns of collaboration, records creation, and use; define the documentation problems; field test possible solutions to these problems; and recommend future actions to secure adequate documentation and facilitate future study. Phase I focused on collaborative research in high-energy physics (complete...

Center for History of Physics (American Institute of Physics)

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This oral history project was undertaken by the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics, beginning in about 1976. The American Philosophical Society Library is a designated repository for the archive, which includes photocopies of typed manuscripts of the interviews, and microfilm and microfiche of certain manuscript collections of astrophysicists. These include the papers of Robert D'E Atkinson, Seth Chandler, Theodore Dunham [The American Philosophical Society has re...

Chompalov, Ivan

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ft8qbb (person)

Capitos, Anthony,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jh3tbh (person)

Weart, Spencer R., 1942-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6222w7s (person)

Spencer R. Weart, born in 1942, received a B.A. in Physics at Cornell University in 1963 and a Ph. D. in Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1968. He then worked for three years at CalTech as a Fellow of the Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories, publishing papers in leading scientific journals. In 1971 Dr. Weart changed his field, enrolling as a graduate student in the History Department of the University of California, Berkeley. In 1974 he took up his present pos...

Warnow-Blewett, Joan

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64j0jdk (person)

Shrum, Wesley, 1953-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63b62xd (person)