The American Postwar Physics Elite: An Internet Resource Pilot Project and Research Initiative

这个项目将解决美国战后物理界研究的不平衡问题。目前，对这一时期的历史研究主要围绕两个主题展开：粒子物理理论与实验，以及冷战时期军工复合体与学术物理学界的关系。这些领域以外的物理学发展相对较少受到关注。由于物理界在这一时期的巨大扩张，这个群体的社会和智力发展不能轻易地通过单一的叙述来追踪。该项目提出了两种方法来开展和鼓励新的分析途径：创建互联网资源和开展研究活动。两者都围绕着对物理精英本质的重新思考。从1945年至2008年，该项目将收集由更广泛的物理学界（通过奖励、任命和精英组织的成员资格）自行选择的大约600名精英子社区成员的信息。这些信息将提供对更广泛的社区的社会和智力动态的洞察，包括其所有的智力、教学、基础设施、行政和咨询方面。在项目助理的帮助下，将创建一个历史研究工具，将这些信息放在互联网上的美国战后物理精英互动指南（IGAPPE）中。IGAPPE将以机构、研究线以及上述约600名个人的概况为特色。档案将强调准确的信息（例如，居住日期）而不是评论；它们将彼此超链接，并将包含对档案和二手文献的参考，以及相关在线资源的链接（许多由美国物理研究所托管）。IGAPPE也将作为一个教学资源，为历史学家熟悉这个广阔的社区，并为物理学生希望了解自己的研究和学科的背景。研究计划的组成部分将包括一项人类学分析（一项旨在确定关系和活动模式的群体成员生活的集体研究），它将集中于为IGAPPE大会收集的信息。这项研究将产生学术论文，并最终成书。这些将对这一时期精英地位的性质、作用和成就及其历史表征做出断言；他们将发现以前被忽视的精英活动节点；他们将推测精英阶层（相对于精英个人）如何影响物理学的本质及其在社会中的作用。由此产生的互联网参考工具和奖学金将推进更广泛的目标。它将在战后物理学研究中培养新的史学潮流，识别和保存重要记录，并使研究人员更好地讨论他们关心的更广泛的问题。该项目可以在未来扩展到更广泛的物理学和其他科学领域。

This project will address an imbalance in the study of the American postwar physics community. Currently, the historical study of this period revolves mainly around two topics: particle physics theory and experimentation, and relationships between the Cold War military-industrial complex and the academic physics community. Developments in physics outside of these areas have received comparatively little attention. Due to vast expansions in the physics community during this period, the social and intellectual development of this community cannot be easily traced through singular narratives. This project proposes two means for undertaking and encouraging new avenues of analysis: the creation of an internet resource and the undertaking of a research initiative. Both revolve around a reconsideration of the nature of the physics elite. The project will accumulate information on an elite sub-community of roughly 600 members self-selected by the broader physics community (through prizes, appointments, and membership in elite organizations) from 1945-2008. This information will offer insight on the social and intellectual dynamics of the broader community encompassing all of its intellectual, pedagogical, infrastructural, administrative, and advisory facets. With the aid of a Project Assistant, a historical research tool will be created by placing this information on the internet in an Interactive Guide to the American Postwar Physics Elite (IGAPPE). IGAPPE will feature profiles of institutions, lines of research, as well as the ca. 600 aforementioned individuals. The profiles will emphasize precise information (e.g., dates of residency) over commentary; they will be hyperlinked to each other, and will contain references to archives and secondary literature, and links to relevant online resources (many hosted by the American Institute of Physics). IGAPPE will also serve as a pedagogical resource for historians gaining familiarity with this expansive community, and for physics students wishing to understand the background of their own research and discipline. The research initiative component will entail a prosopographical analysis (a collective study of the lives of members of a group that aims to determine patterns of relationships and activities), and it will focus on the information gathered for the assembly of IGAPPE. That study will result in scholarly articles and eventually a book. These will make assertions concerning the nature, role, and attainment of elite status in this period and historiographical representations thereof; they will identify previously neglected nodes of elite activity; and they will speculate on how classes of elites (as opposed to elite individuals) impact the nature of physics and its role in society. The resulting internet reference tool and scholarship from this project will advance broader aims. It will foster new historiographical currents in the study of postwar physics, identify and preserve vital records, and better equip researchers to discuss a broader range of issues of concern to them. The project can be expanded in the future to encompass broader swathes of physics and other scientific communities.