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SUMMARY:Rethinking industrial patronage of academic research in the early 
 Cold War - Joseph Martin (Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20190425T143000Z
DTEND:20190425T160000Z
UID:TALK110335@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Agnes Bolinska
DESCRIPTION:Robert Maynard Hutchins\, the University of Chicago's erstwhil
 e chancellor\, remarked in 1963: 'My view\, based on long and painful obse
 rvation\, is that professors are somewhat worse than other people\, and th
 at scientists are somewhat worse than other professors.' This outlook moti
 vated his efforts to insulate Chicago's scientists from industrial and mil
 itary influence after World War II. Perhaps unexpectedly\, Chicago's scien
 ce faculty embraced Hutchins's plan to fund three ambitious new research i
 nstitutes with numerous small subscriptions from industry\, which Hutchins
  hoped would diffuse any one corporation's influence\, seeing in the plan 
 a way to protect their basic research ideal. The University of Michigan de
 ployed a similar strategy to attract industry funding post–World War II.
  Michigan pursued industrial partnerships to support a laboratory that dou
 bled as a living war memorial\, enlisting businesses by appealing to corpo
 rate responsibility and suggesting a shared obligation to prevent governme
 nt control over basic research. In each case\, businesses contributed gene
 rously\, often because they shared concerns about government monopoly on c
 ritical sectors of scientific research.\n\nHistorians have shown how some 
 university-industry collaborations intertwined with the military-industria
 l-academic complex during the Cold War. MIT and Stanford\, for instance\, 
 cultivated a cosy relationship with both industry and government\, at time
 s steering their research towards economic and military interests. Studies
  of this type of relationship have shaped current historical understanding
  of Cold War science. They suggest that individual institutions possessed 
 little latitude to craft the relationships with industry they thought cond
 ucive to their institutional goals. A broader survey of institutions\, and
  engagement with industry's own motives for supporting academic science\, 
 will situate existing understanding of academia-industry partnerships with
 in a larger\, knottier story about American science\, technology\, academi
 a and industry. I present the Chicago and Michigan cases and describe how 
 they motivate systematic re-evaluation of industrial patronage and its pla
 ce in Cold War science.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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