Research Schools of Molecular Biology in the US, UK and France, 1935-1970

Abir-Am博士继续探索和比较1935年至1970年间美国、英国和法国四所分子生物学研究学院成员之间相互作用的过程和结果。该项目追溯了每个研究学院作为不同学科组合的早期起源的独特社会和知识单位的演变。该项目进一步追溯了这些曾经孤立的学派在分子生物学这门新学科中的融合，这门学科与经典生物学和生物化学截然不同。该项目旨在比较这四所研究学院的研究项目、它们的社会成员类别、它们的制度生态以及它们在国内和国际科学政策方面的机会。Abir-Am博士结合了历史和社会学的方法来探索学校成员之间的互动以及学校间的联系。因此，对每个学校的创始人/领导人的个人和机构论文的档案研究辅以对成员和附属机构的口述历史采访。这个项目将有助于澄清研究型学校的实际运作，作为非正式的“货币”交易场所，如创造力、实验灵活性、可信度和忠诚度。它还将评估学校如何与科学进步、变化和分层联系起来，并解释科学权威如何在研究型学校内、在更广泛的学科领域内由学校授权和合法化，以及为什么学校既促进又限制创新和职业。

Dr. Abir-Am is continuing her exploration and comparison of the processes and products of interaction among members of four research schools in molecular biology in the US, UK, and France between 1935 and 1970. The project traces the evolution of each research school as a distinct social and intellectual unit from earlier origins in diverse combinations of disciplines. The project further traces the confluence of these once isolated schools into the new discipline of molecular biology as distinct from both classical biology and biochemistry. The project seeks to compare the research programs of the four research schools, their categories of social membership, their institutional ecology and their opportunities in science policy, both national and international. Dr. Abir-Am combines both historical and sociological methods to explore the interaction among members of a school as well as inter-school contacts. Thus, archival research on the personal and institutional papers of the founders/leaders of each school are supplemented by oral history interviews with members and affiliates. This project will help to clarify the actual operations of research schools as informal arenas for transactions in "currencies" such as creativity, experimental dexterity, credibility, and loyalty. It will also evaluate how schools relate to scientific progress, change and stratification and explain how scientific authority is delegated and legitimized within research schools, by schools within the wider disciplinary domain, and why schools both enable and constrain innovations and careers.