The construction of a discipline: Materials science in the United States

Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences

Volumn 31, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 223-246

  Bensaude Vincent, Bernadette ^a  

^a UNIVERSITÉ PARIS OUEST NANTERRE LA DÉFENSE   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035638222     PISSN: 08909997     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/hsps.2001.31.2.223     Document Type: Article

References (91)

1. National Academy of Sciences, Committee on the Survey of materials science and engineering (COSMAT), Materials and man's needs Washington, D.C., 1975), vol. 1,3-1.
2. Ibid., § 1,3. The same report defined MSE (§ 2. 2): "Materials science and engineering is concerned with the generation and application of knowledge relating to composition, structure, and processing of materials to their propert es and uses."
3. John W. Servos, Physical chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling: The making of a science in America (Princeton, 1990).
4. Cyril Stanley Smith, "The development of ideas on the structure of metals," in Marshall Clagett, ed., Critical problems in the history of science (Madison, 1959), 467-498; and Robert W. Cahn, "Solid state physics and metallurgy," in D.L. Weaire and C.G. Windsor, eds., Solid state science. Past, present, predicted (Bristol, 1987), 79-108.
5. Cyril Stanley Smith, "The development of ideas on the structure of metals," in Marshall Clagett, ed., Critical problems in the history of science (Madison, 1959), 467-498; and Robert W. Cahn, "Solid state physics and metallurgy," in D.L. Weaire and C.G. Windsor, eds., Solid state science. Past, present, predicted (Bristol, 1987), 79-108.
6. Cahn (ibid.), 85.
7. Spencer R. Weart, "The solid community," in Lillian Hoddeson, Ernest Braun, Jurgen Teichman, Spencer Weart, eds., Out of the crystal maze. Chapters from the history of solid state physics (Oxford, 1992), 617-666, on 623.
8. The background paper prepared by the staff of the President's Science Advisory Committee dated 18 Mar 1958, summarized the situation in four points: Rockets, nuclear reactors, and space flight, have created the need for materials which are not currently available; advances in solid state science made during the last decade allow a technology of new materials; since such materials might be needed by federal agencies but not by the civilian economy, the Federal Government has to play the leading role; universities can offer research and skilled manpower if adequately supported. A. Peter Psaras and H. Dale Langford, eds., Advancing materials science (Washington, D.C., 1987), 23-24.
9. MIT contractors described this political decision as a willingness to "encourage the natural growth of universities."
10. Psaras and Langford (ref. 7), table 1, 36.
11. This program launched by Robert L. Sproull concerned polymer composites, stress corrosion cracking, and explosives, Martin Stickley, "ARPA Program in the 1970s," MIT, Office of the President, Records, 1943-1989, AC 12, Box 81.
12. IDLs opened in 1960 - at Cornell, Pennsylvania, and Northwestern; at Brown, Chicago, Harvard, Maryland (terminated in 1977), MIT, North Carolina (terminated in 1978), Purdue and Stanford (1961); Illinois (Urbana), funded by the AEC, in 1962. Lyle H. Schwartz, "Materials research laboratories: Reviewing the first twenty-five years," in Psaras and Langford (ref. 7), 35-44.
13. In the group of 12 universities with ARPA/IDL support, the number of Ph.D.'s granted in materials subject went from 100 in 1960 to 360 in 1967. Ibid., 35-44.
14. Alexander von Hippel, who had pioneered the project in 1956-59 at MIT under the banner "molecular engineering," was marginalized when the ARPA program started. Von Hippel advocated a flexible and voluntary association of academics, MIT, School of Engi" neering, Office of the Dean, Records, 1988, AC 12, Box 71.
15. Stuart W Leslie, The cold war and American science (New York, 1993), 213.
16. A chair of materials science, created at Sussex University in 1965 was held by Robert W. Cahn, a physical metallurgist, who founded the first Journal of materials science in 1966. At Imperial College the metallurgy department offered an interdepartmental course of materials and at Sheffield a faculty of materials technology came into being. The newer postwar universities and colleges transformed into technological universities offered a fa" vorable ground for starting materials programs in Britain but the establishment of large-scale research institutes there lagged behind the U.S. In France, the Ecole nationale supérieure des mines created a Centre des matériaux in 1962.
17. In a conference on materials research in NATO countries held in 1963, European scien" tists gave fifteen papers, the Americans nine. A. Seeger (Germany) surveyed dislocation theory, Pierre Aigrain (France), semiconductors; and Louis Néel (France), magnetic materials. The British pointed out that "materials are a secondary interest of many people but the primary interest of few." NATO, Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development, Advances in materials research in the Nato nations organization (Oxford, 1963).
18. National Academy of Sciences (ref. 1), §7, p. 211.
19. For MIT, where the change of name occurred in 1974-75, see Michael B. Bever, Metallurgy and materials science and engineering at MIT: 1865-1988 (Cambridge, 1988), 91-98.
20. This measure can be interpreted as a consequence of the decline in space research and the student protests against the military presence on campus. However, the minutes of MIT's Research Committee do not show a concern with student protests. Instead the committee worried about scientific communication and national security (7 Oct 1985), classified research (4 Nov 1985), and restrictions imposed by NASA on the involvement of foreign nationals in research (2 Nov 1987).
21. The new definition of interdisciplinary reseaich ran: "Investigators in different disciplines tackle focussed problem areas simultaneously and synchronize their efforts, exchange findings and publish jointly or separately. Such problems may be concerned with specific materials or phenomena that are of common interest. Evolving lines of investigation are directly influenced by the findings of other members of the group MRL." National Science Foundation, policy statement, in MIT, Office of the Associate Provost and Vice-President for Research, 1976-1988, AC 149 box 11.
22. Materials Research Laboratories, policy statement, Mar 1973 in ibid., 1943-1989, box 81.
23. Schwartz (ref. 11), 41.
24. National Materials Advisory Board, Problems and legislative opportunities in the basic materials industries (Washington, D.C., 1975); Philip H. Abelson and Allen L Hammond, eds., Materials: Renewable and nonrenewable resources (Washington, D.C., 1976).
25. National Materials Advisory Board, Problems and legislative opportunities in the basic materials industries (Washington, D.C., 1975); Philip H. Abelson and Allen L Hammond, eds., Materials: Renewable and nonrenewable resources (Washington, D.C., 1976).
26. S. Victor Radcliffe, "World changes and chances: Some new perspectives for materials," in Abelson and Hammond (ibid.), 24-31.
27. Tom Forester, ed., Materials revolution. Superconductors, new materials and the Japanese challenge (Cambridge, 1988).
28. Thomas W. Eagar, "The real challenge in materials engineering," in Forester (ibid.), 241-253, on 253.
29. Federal agencies granted licenses preferentially to small businesses. Royalties had to be paid to the government for an exclusive license and profits earned by universities had to be reinvested in research. Arthur Smith, "Uniform patent legislation," in MIT, Office of Associate Provost and Vice President for Research, 1976-88, AC 149, box 6 folder 19.
30. Christophe Lecuyer, "The making of a science based technological university: Karl Compton, James Killian, and the reform of MIT, 1930-1957" HSPS, 23:1 (1992), 153-180; John W. Servos, "The industrial relations of science: Chemistry at MIT," Isis, 71 (1980), 531-549.
31. Christophe Lecuyer, "The making of a science based technological university: Karl Compton, James Killian, and the reform of MIT, 1930-1957" HSPS, 23:1 (1992), 153-180; John W. Servos, "The industrial relations of science: Chemistry at MIT," Isis, 71 (1980), 531-549.
32. MIT, Office of the President, Records, 1943-1989, AC 12, box 87. Four years after the opening of the Materials Processing Center another project was submitted to the National Academy of Sciences in response to the Japanese leadership. "Toward an advanced materials processing and analysis center (AMPAC)," MIT, Office of the Associate Provost and Vice President for Research, 1976-88, AC 149, box 6, p. 5.
33. The first published occurrence of the tetrahedron that I have found was in National Research Council, Committee on Materials Science and Engineering, Materials science and engineering for the 1990s (Washington, D.C., 1989).
34. The tetrahedron might well be reminiscent of vant' Hoff's 3-d representation of carbon valencies.
35. Patrick Cohendet, M.J. Ledoux, E. Zuscovitch, Les matériaux nouveaux. Dynamique économique et stratégie européenne (Paris, 1987); Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Eloge du mixte. Matériaux nouveaux et philosophie ancienne (Paris, 1998).
36. Patrick Cohendet, M.J. Ledoux, E. Zuscovitch, Les matériaux nouveaux. Dynamique économique et stratégie européenne (Paris, 1987); Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Eloge du mixte. Matériaux nouveaux et philosophie ancienne (Paris, 1998).
37. Ivan Amato, Stuff. The materials the world is made of (New York, 1997), 257.
38. This notion of property as "a response of the material to a given set of conditions" is in Charles O. Smith's textbook, The science of engineering materials (3rd edn., Englewood Cliffs, 1986), 4.
39. Ibid.
40. In 1978 the MRS organized a conference on n situ composites. Conferences on composites materials were held in China (1987), London (1987, 1996), Bordeaux (1989, 1992), and Stuttgart (1990).
41. Originally "composite" was used in conjunction with "reinforced plastics." The U.S. Society for Plastic Industries had a Reinforced Plastics Division, which was renamed Reinforced Plastics and Composites, in 1967. In France, a bi-monthly magazine entitled Plastique renforcé/Verre textile, published by the professiorial organization bearing the same name, started in 1963 and was rechristened Composites in 1983. It retained Plastique renforcé/verre textile as a subtitle.
42. Originally "composite" was used in conjunction with "reinforced plastics." The U.S. Society for Plastic Industries had a Reinforced Plastics Division, which was renamed Reinforced Plastics and Composites, in 1967. In France, a bi-monthly magazine entitled Plastique renforcé/Verre textile, published by the professiorial organization bearing the same name, started in 1963 and was rechristened Composites in 1983. It retained Plastique renforcé/verre textile as a subtitle.
43. Originally "composite" was used in conjunction with "reinforced plastics." The U.S. Society for Plastic Industries had a Reinforced Plastics Division, which was renamed Reinforced Plastics and Composites, in 1967. In France, a bi-monthly magazine entitled Plastique renforcé/Verre textile, published by the professiorial organization bearing the same name, started in 1963 and was rechristened Composites in 1983. It retained Plastique renforcé/verre textile as a subtitle.
44. Bryan Parkyn, "Fibre reinforced composites," in Susan Mossman and Morris Peter, eds., The development of plastics (London, 1994), 105-114.
45. Technically the plastic era began in the 1970s when the volume of plastics used in the world superseded the volume of steel.
46. J.D. Birchall, "Will ceramics ever be as strong as steel?," in Andrew Briggs, ed., The science of new materials (London, 1992), 32-57.
47. The strategy of the Pioneering Research Laboratory headed by Hale Charch was diversification through research. He favored the search for new products over increase in dividends from existing processes or products. Unexpectedly, the path to the discovery began about 1950 when Paul Morgan's laboratory, where Kwolek was working, developed low-temperature processes for the preparation of condensation polymers. Researchers soon realized that these room-temperature processes could be useful in preparing unmeltable or thermally unstable polymers. (David A. Hounshell, Science and corporate strategy: Du Pont R&D, 1902-1980 (Cambridge, 1989), 425-439; interviews with Stephanie Kwolek, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia.
48. For more details on this example see Hélène Teulon, Fonctions, Concurrence et Progrès technique. La diffusion des innovations en matériaux (Doctoral dissertation, CERNA, 1992).
49. M.C. Flemings and Robert W. Cahn, "Organization and trends in materials science and engineering education in the U.S. and Europe," Acta metallurgica, 48 (2000), 371-383.
50. George M. Whitesides, Mark S. Wrighton, and George Parshall, "The role of chemistry in materials science," in Psaras and Langford (ref. 7), 203-224.
51. Gabor A. Somojai, "From surface materials to surface technologies," MRS bulletin, 23:5 (1-998), 11-29.
52. Frank DiSalvo, Cornell University, personal communication, 12 Apr 2000.
53. MRS bulletin, 25:3 (2000) is devoted to "Solid electrolytes: Advances in science and technology."
54. The American Materials Research Society publishes Journal of materials research and the monthly semi-popular, MRS bulletin.
55. The American Materials Research Society publishes Journal of materials research and the monthly semi-popular, MRS bulletin.
56. W.O. Baker was particularly fond of this metaphor: "Materials science in the United States is now in its early youth- not old enough to protest, but at an age in which it demands full understanding, patience, and the beginnings of self-discipline....Thus with respect to the present I report this adolescence of our field," in Roy Rustum, ed., Materials science & engineering in the USA (University Park, 1970), 44-64, on 66.
57. M. Sarikaya, Ilian Aksay, eds., Biomimetics: Design and processing of materials (Woodbury, 1995).
58. Stephen Mann,"Crystallochemical strategies" in Stephen Mann, John Werbb, and Robert Williams, eds., Biomineralization, chemical and biological perspectives (Weinheim, 1989), 35-62, on 35.
59. Richard Feynman, "There is plenty of room at the bottom," December 1959 was reprinted in Engineering and science, the Caltech's alumni magazine for Feb 1960, and in Science, 254 (1991), 1300-1301.
60. Richard Feynman, "There is plenty of room at the bottom," December 1959 was reprinted in Engineering and science, the Caltech's alumni magazine for Feb 1960, and in Science, 254 (1991), 1300-1301.
61. Joseph A. Stroscio and Eigler, "Atomic and molecular manipulation with the scanning tunnelling microscope," Science, 254 (1991), 1319-1326.
62. IBM laboratories obtained STM: pictures of a layer of gold atoms in 1988, a benzene molecule in 1989, and a "molecular man" in 1990. Jed Z. Buchwald, "How the ether spawned the microworld," in Lorraine Daston, ed., Biographies of scientific objects (Chicago, 2000), 203-225.
63. S. Weiner and Lia Addadi, "Design strategies in mineralized biological materials," Journal of material chemistry, 7 (1997), 689-702.
64. Eric Baer, Anne Hiltner, and R. Morgan, "Biological and synthetic hierarchical composites," Physics today (Oct 1992), 60-67; National Advisory Board, Hierarchical structures in biology as a guide for new materials technology (Washington, D.C., 1994)
65. Eric Baer, Anne Hiltner, and R. Morgan, "Biological and synthetic hierarchical composites," Physics today (Oct 1992), 60-67; National Advisory Board, Hierarchical structures in biology as a guide for new materials technology (Washington, D.C., 1994)
66. T. Tagaki, "A concept of intelligent materials," in Iqbal Ahman and Andrew Crowson, eds, US/Japan workshop on smart/intelligent materials and systems (Lancaster, 1990), 1-10.
67. On 21 Jan 2000, President Clinton announced the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) with a federal budget of a hundred million dollars for 2001.
68. Such collaborations are the basis of the centers of materials science recently established at Princeton (Materials Institute) and Santa Barbara (Materials Research Laboratory).
69. Robert W. Cahn, "Materials engineering for robody" in Artifice and artefacts. 100 essays in materials science (Bristol, 1992), 333-335.
70. William F. Smith, Principles of materials science and engineering (New York, 1986); James A. Jacobs, Thomas F. Kilduff, engineering materials technology (Upper Saddle River, N.J., 1985, 1994, 1997).
71. William F. Smith, Principles of materials science and engineering (New York, 1986); James A. Jacobs, Thomas F. Kilduff, engineering materials technology (Upper Saddle River, N.J., 1985, 1994, 1997).
72. S.A. Allen and E.L. Thomas, Structure of materials (New York, 1999), vi.
73. Nigel Goldenfeld and Leo Kadanoff, "Simple lessons from complexity," Science, 284 (1999), 87-89.
74. George M. Whitesides, "Complexity in chemistry," Science, 284 (1999), 88-92.
75. Sharon Glatzer created a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science (CTCMS) in 1994 to develop software and tools for modeling structures and to sponsor workshops.
76. See the Georgia Tech Center for Computational Materials Science website.
77. Technology review, July-August 1999, 56-61
78. This approach was first developed by Affymax Research Institute a biotechnology company created by Alejandro Zaffaroni and later purchased by Glaxo.
79. Combinatorial techniques were marketed by Symyx (created in 1995), whose name derived from a Greek word meaning "co-mingling substances to form something new."
80. Stephen Mann, "Exploiting the nanotechnology of life," Science, 254 (1991), 1308-1309.
81. George M. Whitesides, John P. Mathias, and Christopher T. Seto, "Molecular self-assembly and nanochemistry: A chemical strategy for the synthesis of nanostructures,"Science, 254 (1991), 1312-1318.
82. N. Bowden, A. Terfort., J. Carbeck., and George Whitesides, Science, 276 (1997), 233; T. Breen, J. Tien, S. Oliver S., T. Hadzic, and George Whitesides, Science, 284 (1999), 948.
83. N. Bowden, A. Terfort., J. Carbeck., and George Whitesides, Science, 276 (1997), 233; T. Breen, J. Tien, S. Oliver S., T. Hadzic, and George Whitesides, Science, 284 (1999), 948.
84. Tewodros Asefa, Mark J. MacLachlan, Neil Coombs, and Geoffrey A. Ozin, "Periodic mesoporous organosilicas with orgnic groups inside the channelwalls," Nature, 402 (1999), 867-871.
85. T. Tagaki, "A concept of intelligent materials" in Ahmam and Crowson (ref. 57), 1-10.
86. K. Eric Drexler, Engines of creation (New York, 1986) and "The coming era of nanotechnology," in Forester (ref. 23).
87. On Marcellin Berthelot's ambitious program see Jean Jacques, Berthelot. Autopsie d'un mythe (Paris, 1987), and Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Isabel Stengers, A history of chemistry (Cambridge, 1996).
88. On Marcellin Berthelot's ambitious program see Jean Jacques, Berthelot. Autopsie d'un mythe (Paris, 1987), and Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Isabel Stengers, A history of chemistry (Cambridge, 1996).
89. Nigel Goldenfeld and Leo Kadanoff, "Simple lessons from complexity," Science, 284 (1999), 87-89.
90. Paul Calvert, "Biomimetic ceramics and composites," MRS bulletin (1992), 37-40.
91. Steven Boxer, quoted in "Exploiting the nanotechnology of life," Science, 254 (1991), 1308-1309.