From materials science to nanotechnology: Interdisciplinary center programs at Cornell University, 1960-2000

Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences

Volumn 43, Issue 2, 2013, Pages 121-161

  Mody, Cyrus C M ^a   Choi, Hyungsub ^b  

^a RICE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Seoul National University   (South Korea)

Author keywords

Laboratory buildings; Materials bottleneck; Microfabrication; Multidisciplinarity; Organizational field; Relevant research

Indexed keywords

EID: 84876577988     PISSN: 19391811     EISSN: 1939182X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/hsns.2013.43.2.121     Document Type: Review

References (116)

1. The White House Office of the Press Secretary, "President Clinton's Address to Caltech on Science and Technology", California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (21 Jan 2000).
2. For an analysis of the policy battles that led to the NNI, see Yasuyuki Motoyama, Richard Appelbaum, and Rachel Parker, "The National Nanotechnology Initiative: Federal Support for Science and Technology, or Hidden Industrial Policy?" Technology in Society 33 (2011): 109-18.
3. Dragana Brzakovic, "NSF Centers: Platforms for Innovation", http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/presentations/db/platforms-for-innovation.pdf (accessed 4 Dec 2011), on 5. Brzakovic's presentation succinctly covers the characteristics of this mode of support.
4. National Nanotechnology Initiative, "Centers and Networks", http://nano.gov/centersnetworks (accessed 19 Jul 2012).
5. Leonard S. Reich, The Making of American Industrial Research: Science and Business at GE and Bell, 1876-1926 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985);
6. Robert E. Kohler, Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Scientists, 1900-1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
7. David Kaiser, "Elephant on the Charles: Postwar Growing Pains", in Kaiser, ed., Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010), 103-21;
8. Michael Aaron Dennis, "'Our First Line of Defense': Two University Laboratories in the Postwar American State", Isis 85, no. 3 (1994): 427-55.
9. Paul Forman, "The Primacy of Science in Modernity, of Technology in Postmodernity, and of Ideology in the History of Technology", History and Technology 23 (2007): 1-152.
10. Forman is not the only one that takes circa 1980 as the key turning point. Roger Geiger also points to 1980 as the point when "concerted effort was made to relate academic research more closely to the civilian economy." Roger L. Geiger, Knowledge & Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), vii.
11. The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 is another reference point in the discussion over the commercialization of research universities. On the impact of the Bayh-Dole Act, see David C. Mowery, Richard R. Nelson, Bhaven N. Sampat, and Arvids A. Ziedonis, Ivory Tower and Industrial Innovation: University-Industry Technology Transfer Before and After the Bayh-Dole Act (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004).
12. Some sociologists formulate this as a change from "Mode 1" to "Mode 2" research. See Michael Gibbons et al., The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies (London: Sage, 1994).
13. See, for example. Frederick Seitz, "Perspectives in Materials Research", Physics Today 14, no. 11 (1961): 24-28.
14. A. von Hippel, "Molecular Engineering", Science 123 (1956): 315-17.
15. For a more comprehensive articulation of Von Hippel's vision, see his edited volume Molecular Science and Molecular Engineering (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1959).
16. Seitz, "Perspectives" (ref. 8).
17. Robert L. Sproull, "Materials Research Laboratories: The Early Years", in Peter A. Psaras and H. Dale Langford, eds., Advancing Materials Research (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1987), 25-34.
18. "U.S. Aids Research in New Materials", New York Times, 17 Jul 1960;
19. Cornell University News Bureau, "Press Release", 1 Jul 1960, DRC, Box 3, Folder 5.
20. Lillian Hoddeson, Ernst Braun, Jurgen Teichmann, and Spencer Weart, eds., Out of the Crystal Maze: Chapters from the History of Solid State Physics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 193.
21. H. A. Bethe, "30 Years of Physics at Cornell", speech given at the Clark Hall Dedication, 20 Oct 1965, Hans Bethe papers, #14-22-976, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Box 8, Folder 63.
22. S. S. Schweber, "Big Science in Context: Cornell and MIT", in Peter Galison and Bruce Hevly, eds., Big Science: The Growth of Large-Scale Research (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992), 177-79.
23. Number counted from appendix of Paul Hartman, The Cornell Physics Department: Recollections and History of Sorts (privately published in 1984), 332-40.
24. Paul L. Hartman, Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell: A History of the School with Various Asides and a Brief Look at the Department from Which It Came (Ithaca, NY: College of Engineering, Cornell University, 1994), 8-9.
25. J. A. Krumhansl, "The Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics", 12 Jan 1961, DRC, Box 16, Folder 18.
26. Hartman, Engineering Physics (ref. 17), 37-38.
27. "Cornell and Its Future in Engineering", 8 Oct 1964, DRC, Box 16, Folder 28.
28. "Plans for Materials Center" (ref. 23), 5.
29. "Additional Remarks to 'Plans for a Materials Science Center at Cornell University' submitted May 23, 1959", 23 Sep 1959, CCMR, Box 31, Folder 31.
30. Henri S. Sack and Paul J. Leurgans, "Impact of the ARPA Program in the Area of Materials Science at Cornell University: The First Three Years of Operation of the Materials Science Center", 31 Jan 1964, CCMR, Box 14, Folder 23.
31. Eyring was an eminent chemist who contributed to the study of chemical reaction rates. He was a faculty member at Princeton University until 1946, when he moved to the University of Utah as dean of its graduate school. His relocation to Utah was partly motivated by his religious faith as a Mormon. For Eyring's "life and faith", see Henry J. Eyring, Mormon Scientist: The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Books, 2008).
32. Arthur Louis Ruoff, "Personal Data", copy provided to Choi by Ruoff.
33. "Memo for the File: Meeting of the MSC Executive Committee on 26 September, 1962", 15 Oct 1962, CCMR, Box 20, Folder 2.
34. Robert L. Sproull, "Early History of the MSC at Cornell", Aug 1963, CCMR, Box 31, Folder 4.
35. Robert L. Sproull, "Physical Sciences Building History", 1964, CCMR, Box 31, Folder 31.
36. John E. Gerich, "Science Center⋯ Univ. Constructs Largest Hall", Cornell Daily Sun, 3 Jan 1963.
37. "The Physics-ARPA Building", 22 Aug 1960, CCMR, Box 4, Folder 10;
38. "Dedication of Clark Hall of Science and Physical Sciences Symposium", 20 Oct 1965, Hans A. Bethe papers, #14-22-976, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Box 8, Folder 63.
39. Bethe, "30 Years" (ref. 14).
40. "Clark Hall of Science", 2 Dec 1966, CCMR, Box 4, Folder 10.
41. Out of twenty-four PhDs who graduated through Cornell MSC in 1965, eleven of them went on to academic positions, six to industrial jobs, and four to government laboratories. "Graduate Students Who Have Received Advanced Degrees, 1964-1965", CCMR, Box 38, Folder 20.
42. Charles F. Yost to Directors, Materials Sciences Program, IDL Universities, 23 Apr 1964;
43. ARPA Materials Sciences, "Translation of Materials Sciences to Technology: The Problem and a Possible Solution", 7 Apr 1964, CCMR, Box 1, Folder ARPA Correspondence, Jul 63-Jun 64.
44. "Translation of Materials Sciences" (ref. 43), 3. Perhaps reflecting the general response of the academic community, the reader of the memorandum made handwritten notes in the margins, putting a question mark next to the phrase "Department of Defense needs" and noting that this was "too restricted." The person who wrote the note was most likely Henri Sack, who was the Director of Cornell MSC at the time.
45. For an early discussion of Project Hindsight, see Karl Kreilkamp, "Hindsight and the Real World of Science Policy", Science Studies 1 (1971): 43-66.
46. Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering to Director, Advanced Projects Research Agency, "High Priority Problems in the DOD Materials Programs", 6 Feb 1967, CCMR, Box 20, Folder 8.
47. H. S. Sack to Members of Executive Committee, "IDL Directors' Meeting, Washington, D.C. January 5, 1968", CCMR, Box 20, Folder 8.
48. See, for example, George C. Wilson, "War Trims U.S. Aid to Research", Washington Post, 27 Nov 1967.
49. Robert Huggins, "Memo to Principal Investigators of all ARPA-supported Materials Research Programs; Implementation of Section 203 of the 1970 Military Procurement Authorization Act", 8 Jan 1970, Materials Research Lab Records, 1949-1996, Special Collection Library, Pennsylvania State University Archives, University Park, PA, Box 2, Folder ARPA Crystal Prep. Program at Penn State.
50. "Materials Research Laboratories: Where to in Materials Research", n.d. [1971?], CCMR, Box 5, Folder 5.
51. Management and Cost Analysis Staff, GCO, "Materials Research Laboratories Study, January 1974", Office of the Historian: Agency Organizational History and Selected Backgrounds, Records of the NSF, Record Group 307, National Archives and Records Administration II, College Park, MD, Box 20, Folder Materials Research Lab. (73-74).
52. For multiple examples of administrators, faculty members, and student protestors at Stanford equating interdisciplinarity and relevance in the early 1970s, see Cyrus C. M. Mody, "Conversions: Sound and Sight, Military and Civilian", in Trevor Pinch and Karin Bijsterveld, eds., Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 224-48
53. and Cyrus C. M. Mody and Andrew J. Nelson, "'A Towering Virtue of Necessity': Computer Music at Vietnam-Era Stanford", Osiris 28 (forthcoming).
54. Works that survey the turn toward civilian "relevance" include: Eric J. Vettel, Biotech: The Countercultural Origins of an Industry (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006);
55. Juan C. Lucena, Defending the Nation: Policymaking to Create Scientists and Engineers from Sputnik to the 'War Against Terrorism' (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005);
56. Jennifer S. Light, From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003);
57. Stuart W. Leslie, The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
58. Dian Belanger, Enabling American Innovation: Engineering and the National Science Foundation (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1998).
59. Jay Harris, "It's a Small World", text of talk delivered at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility/NRRFSS in 2003, copy given to Cyrus Mody by Jay Harris;
60. also, Jay H. Harris et al., "The Government Role in VLSI", in Norman G. Einspruch, ed., VLSI Electronics: Microstructure Science, Vol. 1 (New York: Academic Press, 1981), 265-99.
61. An Assessment of the Needs for Equipment, Instrumentation, and Facilities for University Research in Science and Engineering (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1971).
62. The Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory at MIT (FBNML) was founded in 1961 on an Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant, but was transferred to the NSF in 1971 along with the MRLs. See Arthur Fisher, "The Magnetism of a Shared Facility", Mosaic 11, no. 2 (1980): 38-45.
63. Jay Harris claims that he had the FBNML in mind when he conceived the idea for a national microfabrication facility. Jay Harris, interview with author (Mody), San Diego, CA, 5 May 2006. W. Patrick McCray, Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambition and the Promise of Technology (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004)
64. describes the fights over construction of publicly funded "national" telescopes in the '70s and '80s. Olof Hallonsten, "Small Science on Big Machines: Politics and Practices of Synchrotron Radiation Laboratories" (PhD dissertation, Lund University, 2009) offers background on the NSF's 1973 decision to fund the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory as a "national user facility." That facility was an outgrowth of Stanford's Center for Materials Research (one of the MRLs) attached to the AEC-funded Stanford Linear Accelerator. In 1977, Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology requested funding from the Biological Research Resources Program of NSF's Division of Environmental Biology in order to make the "Collections [available] as a National Resource." Proposal "Operational support of the regular collection of mammals in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology",
65. W. Z. Lidicker and J. L. Patton, 23 Nov 1977, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology archives, Berkeley, CA (courtesy of Mary Sunderland).
66. For the adoption of the user facility concept in chemistry, see William J. Cromie, "Regional Instrumentation Centers", Mosaic 11, no. 2 (1980): 12-18.
67. Charles Polk, "Address to the NSF Workshop", in Report of the NSF Workshop on Needs for a National Research and Resource Center in Submicron Structures (East Coast), submitted by J. N. Zemel and M. S. Chang (Philadelphia: Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 10 May 1976), 25-35.
68. For an overview of the VLSI program and its aftermath in Japan, see Scott Callon, Divided Sun: MITI and the Breakdown of Japanese High-Tech Industrial Policy, 1975-1993 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995).
69. We have observed elsewhere that the crises spawned by Sputnik and the Japanese VLSI program had very similar effects on research fields located at the intersection of the physical and engineering sciences. Both crises opened spaces for institutional entrepreneurs to grab resources by supplying shaken bureaucracies with visions of revolutionary research that would fend off the United States' competitors. The difference, however, is that the most urgent field of national competition had shifted from defense to commerce between 1957 and 1975. See Hyungsub Choi and Cyrus C. M. Mody, "The Long History of Molecular Electronics: Microelectronics Origins of Nanotechnology", Social Studies of Science 39 (2009): 11-50.
70. See Lucena, Defending the Nation (ref. 53)
71. and Sheila Slaughter and Larry L. Leslie, Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). We are talking about shifts in emphasis and political attractiveness here. National security frames never disappeared, of course; indeed, national security research funding dwarfed non-National Institutes of Health civilian research funding throughout the period we are discussing. Moreover, national security framing for science policy has seen periodic resurgences, particularly in the mid-'80s and after 2001.
72. Harris, "Small World" (ref. 55).
73. E. D. Wolf and J. M. Ballantyne, "Research and Resource at the National Submicron Facility", in Einspruch, ed., VLSI Electronics (ref. 55), 129-83.
74. Mark L. Schattenburg, "History of the 'Three Beams' Conference, the Birth of the Information Age, and the Era of Lithography Wars", 2007, http://eipbn.org/2010/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/EIPBN-history.pdf (accessed 15 Dec 2011).
75. Harris, "Government Role" (ref. 55);
76. and comment by William Brinkman of Bell Labs in "Discussion of the Objectives, Program and Organization of the Proposed Center", in Zemel and Chang, Report of the NSF Workshop (ref. 58), 36-40.
77. William S. C. Chang, Marcel W. Muller, Fred J. Rosenbaum, and Charles M. Wolfe, Opportunities and Requirements for a National Center for Research on Submicron Structures (St. Louis: Laboratory for Applied Electronic Sciences, Washington University, May 3, 1976), 5.
78. Henry Smith (PI), "Proposal Submitted to National Science Foundation for National Research and Resource Facility for Submicron Structures", 1 Jul 1977; copy given to Cyrus Mody by Henry Smith.
79. CCMR, "Some reasons why" (ref. 69).
80. H. Smith, "X-Ray Lithography", in Zemel and Chang, Report of the NSF Workshop (ref. 58), 7-9;
81. Schattenburg, "History of the 'Three Beams (ref. 64);"'
82. Henry I. Smith and R. Fabian Pease, "Reaching for the Bottom: The Evolution of EIPBN", Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B 22, no. 6 (2004): 2882-84.
83. Andrew R. Neureuther, "X-Ray Lithography and Photoresist Technology", in Needs for a National Research and Resource Center in Submicron Structures: Report on National Science Foundation Workshop Held in Salt Lake City, Utah May 21, 1976, submitted by Richard W. Grow, Robert J. Huber, and Roland W. Ure, Jr. (Salt Lake City, UT: Microwave Device and Physical Electronics Laboratory, University of Utah, 15 Sep 1976), 30-39.
84. Joseph Ballantyne et al., proposal for National Sub-Micron Facility, undated (must be Jan 1977), DOR, Box 39, Folder 14.
85. Robert W. Keyes, proposal for Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry and Physics of Microstructure Fabrication, 3 Mar 1975, in Gordon Research Conference archives, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, Series III - Director's Files, Box 51 (AM Cruickshank Ma-Mi), Folder Microstructure Fabrication.
86. Smith oral history (ref. 69).
87. See "Materials Research: Meeting the Challenge of Microelectronics Technology", and "Faculty Profile: Henry I. Smith", RLE Currents 2, no. 1 (1988): 1-8 and 9-14;
88. Paul DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields", American Sociological Review 48 (1983): 147-60.
89. Gregory T. Cibuzar, "Microelectronics at the University of Minnesota", Proceedings of the Tenth Annual University/Government/Industry Microelectronics Symposium (IEEE: 1993), 170-73.
90. Jerry R. Yeargan, "Developing a Program in Analog Electronics", Proceedings of the Sixth Annual University/Government/Industry Microelectronics Symposium (IEEE: 1993), 9-11.
91. R. C. Jaeger et al., "The Alabama Microelectronics Science and Technology Center and the Microelectronics Program at Auburn University", Proceedings of the Sixth Annual University/Government/Industry Microelectronics Symposium (IEEE: 1993), 42-45.
92. Other papers in the IEEE University/Government/Industry proceedings for the early '80s give a sense of the growth of the microfabrication organizational field. See also John F. Mason, "VLSI Goes to School", IEEE Spectrum 17, no. 11 (1980): 48-52.
93. Dale Whittington, High Hopes for High Tech: Microelectronics Policy in North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985).
94. Ben Streetman et al., "Proposal for a Texas Microelectronics Center in the College of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin", Mar 1983, in University of Texas Executive Vice President and Provost's Office records (collection 96-273), The Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, Box 24, Folder Microelectronics Research Center, 1983-1984.
95. Joe Ballantyne, memo to Greg Galvin, re: Information for Frank Rhodes [president of Cornell], 11 Aug 1986, FRP, Box 160, Folder 59.
96. See, for example, the special issue of Physics Today on "microscience" that Krumhansl instigated, including Edward D. Wolf, "The National Submicron Facility", Physics Today 32, no. 11 (1979).
97. NRRFSS Policy Board, "Background Material for Topics to Be Discussed", 17 Nov 1986, DOR, Box 39, Folder 13.
98. NRRFSS, "Report on the National User Research Program '82-'85", in DOR, Box 38, Folder 5;
99. also E.D. Wolf, "Recent National Press Coverage of NRRFSS", handout for NSF discussions, 7 Jan 1982, DOR, Box 37, Folder 32.
100. "Improving the Research Infrastructure at U.S. Universities and Colleges", Hearing before the Committee on Science and Technology, US House of Representatives, 98th Congress, Second Session, 8 May 1984.
101. T.E. Everhart, memo to NRRFSS Policy Board, 25 Feb 1981, DOR, Box 39, Folder 12.
102. "A New Home for the Facility", PROSUS (Program on Submicrometer Structures) newsletter, Spring 1980, DOR, Box 32, Folder 19.
103. NRRFSS, "Report on User Program" (ref. 92).
104. E. D. Wolf et al., "Proposal for National Nanofabrication Facility at Cornell University", Aug 1986, DOR, Box 39, Folder 15. It should be noted, however, that the next sentence of the proposal states that "the resources of the NRRFSS are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to trained users." It's likely, therefore, that the 60% figure overstates the proportion of non-Cornell users. Non-Cornell visitors would depend on assistance from facility personnel - present during normal working hours - for a much greater proportion of their time in Ithaca than Cornell users. Thus, Cornell graduate students would probably have found it much easier to use the facility's equipment during off-hours, and therefore likely took up much more than 40% of total user time.
105. Cornell University News Bureau news release, "Background: Visiting Scientists, Industrial Affiliates Participate in National Research and Resource Facility for Submicron Structures", Oct 1981, DOR, Box 37, Folder 32; Stanford Center for Integrated Systems Industrial Sponsors Advisory Committee draft report, 16 Sep 1988, CIS in-house archive. Note, though, that there were less than half as many CIS sponsors, and that only a fraction of CIS sponsorship funds went to the Integrated Circuits Laboratory.
106. Roger Segelken, "A Case History of a Computer Media Event - Introducing a Supercomputer Center", Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Systems Documentation (New York: ACM, 1985), 146-60.
107. Belanger, Enabling American Innovation (ref. 54), 219.
108. Ballantyne, "Centers: Collaboration, Coordination, Competition, Collegiality, Cost, and Continuity", draft for talk at symposium in honor of Dale Corson, given to Hyungsub Choi by Ballantyne.
109. The MRSECs and NNI-defined nano centers are located in thirty states and the District of Columbia. While our story is primarily about U.S. universities and federal agencies, the communities of researchers interacting with those institutions were transnational in scope. For a similar survey of the spread of an organizational field for materials science in France, see Pierre Teissier, "Solid-State Chemistry in France: Structures and Dynamics of a Scientific Community since World War II", HSNS 40, no. 2 (2010): 225-58.
110. Stuart W. Leslie and Robert H. Kargon, "Selling Silicon Valley: Frederick Terman's Model for Regional Advantage", Business History Review 70 (1996): 435-72;
111. Dong-Won Kim and Stuart W. Leslie, "Winning Markets or Winning Nobel Prizes? KAIST and the Challenges of Late Industrialization", Osiris, 2nd series, 13 (1998): 154-85;
112. Stuart W. Leslie, "Regional Disadvantage: Replicating Silicon Valley in New York's Capital Region", Technology and Culture 42, no. 2 (2001): 236-64;
113. Stuart W. Leslie and Robert Kargon, "Exporting MIT: Science, Technology, and Nation-Building in India and Iran", Osiris 21 (2006): 110-30;
114. Ross Bassett, "Aligning India in the Cold War Era: Indian Technical Elites, the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, and Computing in India and the United", Technology and Culture 50, no. 4 (2009): 783-810;
115. Margaret Pugh O'Mara, Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005).
116. Alfred Nordmann, Hans Radder, and Gregor Schiemann, eds., Science Transformed? Debating Claims of an Epochal Break (Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh University Press, 2011).