Oppenheimer as Scientific Intellectual: A Centennial Workshop, April 2004

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Robert Oppenheimer stands as the mid-twentieth century's example of the iconic American scientist. His career can mark the intersection of some of the most dynamic research agendas in STS. Oppenheimer's self-positioning as a theorist and his activity as a teacher illuminate the study of theory as scientific practice, just as his trajectory through the mid-century era frames the place of science in U.S. political and intellectual history. To provoke exchanges among scholars from different fields, Professors David A. Hollinger, a U.S. intellectual historian, and Cathryn Carson, a historian of physics, are convening a workshop on Oppenheimer's role as a scientific intellectual. The workshop will be held at the University of California, Berkeley, in April 2004 to coincide with Oppenheimer's centennial. The twenty participants will include younger scholars offering new approaches along with established Oppenheimer scholars. Their contributions will be published in 2005 in a volume of the series Berkeley papers in history of science. The intellectual harvest of the workshop will be an innovative research program constructed by participants with different disciplinary tools. The rewards for Oppenheimer scholarship will be matched by the fruitful questions opened up by his case as an example. The broader impacts are equally significant. The workshop will be embedded in a centennial program coordinated with other Berkeley departments. These events, public like the workshop itself, will engage the wider community interested in scientists' public functions. The inexpensive Berkeley papers volume, readily purchasable online, will disseminate the results. It will be useful in undergraduate courses that deal with this pivotal figure, as well as teacher preparation for high school history classes.