Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Edward Condon''s Cooperative Vision
ISBN: 9780822986263
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / University of Pittsburgh Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Research; Technological innovations; Science and industry;

As a professor of physics at Princeton University for nearly ten years, Edward Condon sealed his reputation as one of the sharpest minds in the field and a pioneer in quantum theoretical physics. Then, in 1937, he left it all behind to pursue an industrial career--first at the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh and then, by way of the federal government, at the National Bureau of Standards. In a radical departure from professional norms, Condon sought to redefine the relationship between academic science and technological innovation in industry. He envisioned intimate cooperation with the universities to serve the needs of his employers and also the broader business community.

Edward Condon's Cooperative Vision explores the life cycle of that vision during the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the early Cold War. Condon's cooperative model of research and development evolved over time and by consequence laid bare sharp disagreements among academic, corporate, and government stakeholders about the practical value of new knowledge, where and how it should be produced, and ultimately, on whose behalf it ought to be put to use.

Thomas C. Lassman is curator of the post-World War II rocket and missile collection at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. He previously worked at the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.