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

该项目将解决美国战后物理学界研究中的不平衡问题。目前，这一时期的历史研究主要围绕两个主题：粒子物理理论和实验，以及冷战军事工业复合体与学术物理界之间的关系。物理学在这些领域之外的发展受到的关注相对较少。由于这一时期物理学界的大规模扩张，这个群体的社会和智力发展不能通过单一的叙述来轻易追踪。该项目提出了开展和鼓励新的分析途径的两种手段：创建互联网资源和开展研究活动。两者都围绕着对物理学精英性质的重新思考。该项目将收集1945年至2008年期间由更广泛的物理学界（通过奖励，任命和精英组织成员资格）自行选择的大约600名成员的精英子社区的信息。这些信息将提供对更广泛的社区的社会和知识动态的洞察力，包括其所有的知识，教学，基础设施，行政和咨询方面。在项目助理的帮助下，将通过将这些信息放在互联网上的美国战后物理学精英互动指南（IGAPPE）中创建历史研究工具。IGAPPE将介绍机构概况、研究方向以及研究领域。上述600人。配置文件将强调精确的信息（例如，居住日期）而不是评论;它们将相互超链接，并将包含对档案和二级文献的引用，以及相关在线资源的链接（许多由美国物理研究所主办）。IGAPPE还将作为历史学家熟悉这个广阔社区的教学资源，以及希望了解自己研究和学科背景的物理学学生。研究计划的组成部分将包括一项人学分析（对一个群体成员的生活进行集体研究，目的是确定关系和活动的模式），并将侧重于为IGAPPE大会收集的信息。这项研究将产生学术文章，最终出版一本书。这些论文将对这一时期精英地位的性质、作用和成就及其史学表现做出断言;他们将确定以前被忽视的精英活动节点;他们将推测精英阶层（而不是精英个人）如何影响物理学的性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，从这个项目将推进更广泛的目标。它将促进战后物理学研究中的新史学潮流，识别和保存重要记录，并更好地装备研究人员讨论他们关心的更广泛的问题。该项目可以在未来扩大，以涵盖更广泛的物理学和其他科学界。

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.