The Rise and Institutionalization of Geophysics in American Universities

在20世纪，地球物理学从工业实验室和捐赠的研究设施进入大学。它是美国最后几个这样做的主要物理科学分支之一。地球物理学向以大学为基础的学科的转变向地质学家、地球物理学家和大学管理者提出了挑战，他们正在努力解决固体地球物理学家和野外地质学家在适当的方法方法上的尖锐冲突，以及地球物理组成部分领域令人望而生畏的多样性。地球物理学家寻求发展学术设施，部分是为了通过大学随时可以获得的跨学科联系来处理复杂的问题，如地核的性质。它的领导人还寻求开发专业中心，以培训进入该领域的新成员。到20世纪60年代，地球物理学的快速发展重塑了现有的地质科学系，并重新定位了地质现象的研究。然而，由于地球物理学的历史在很大程度上仍未被探索，人们对这些重大而深远的变化知之甚少。鉴于跨学科研究在现代科学中的重要性，这个主题值得特别关注。多尔博士致力于从20世纪20年代初到60年代，利用固体地球物理学的发展探索几个广泛的主题，包括学科的形成、美国研究型大学的发展，以及赞助和机构设置对科学知识生产的影响。这项研究是在美国物理研究所(AIP)物理史中心进行的。AIP在这一项目中发挥着重要作用，包括使用AIP为其他领域的类似项目开发的方法，保存未公布的信件、机构记录和录音回忆录等历史“原始数据”。

In the 20th century, geophysics moved from industrial laboratories and endowed research facilities into the university. It was one of the last major branches of physical science in the United States to do so. The transformation of geophysics into a university-based discipline challenged geologists, geophysicists, and university administrators who wrestled with the sharp conflict between solid earth geophysicists and field geologists over proper methodological approaches and the daunting diversity of geophysics' component fields. Geophysicists sought to develop academic facilities in part to approach complex problems such as the nature of the Earth's core through interdisciplinary contacts readily available at universities. Its leaders also sought to develop professional centers for training new recruits to the field. By the 1960s, the rapid growth of geophysics reshaped existing departments of geological sciences and reoriented the study of geological phenomena. Yet because the history of geophysics remains largely unexplored, little is known about these significant and far- reaching changes. Given the importance of interdisciplinary research in modern science, the subject merits special attention. Dr. Doel is concentrating on the period from the early 1920s through the 1960s, utilizing the growth of solid earth geophysics to explore several broad themes including discipline formation, the development of American research universities, and the influence of patronage and institutional settings on the production of scientific knowledge. This study is being undertaken at the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The AIP is playing an important role in this project, including the preservation of historical "raw data" such as unpublished correspondence, institutional records, and tape-recorded recollections, using methods AIP has developed for similar projects in other fields.