These informal talks are presented to give insight into new areas of research being done in the history of physics and its allied fields. They are open to the public, take place around lunchtime, and are held at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD.
Talks are often given by visiting researchers or historians using the Niels Bohr Library & Archives or having received a grant-in-aid from the Center to complete their work.
Upcoming Talks
- There are no Brown Bag talks currently scheduled
Past Talks
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October 25, 2018
The American Physics Profession’s Response to the Energy Crisis of 1973
Thomas Turnbull, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin -
October 12, 2018
The Trouble with Quantum Physics, and Why It Matters
Adam Becker, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar -
April 3, 2018
Solly and Dick: Science Advising and the social Responsibility of Science
Anthony Eames, Georgetown University -
October 11, 2017
The Rebirth of the Earth: The Emergence of the Earth System Concept, 1979-1980
Jennifer Barton, Ph.D. candidate, University of Toronto -
August 2, 2017
The Year of the Earth (1957-1958): Cold War Science and the Making of Planetary Consciousness
Benjamin Goosen, ABD, Harvard University -
May 9, 2017
The National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and NCAR: The Era of Big Meteorology Arrives
Joe Bassi, PhD -
May 8, 2017
The Television Test Tube: Science Series on American Television, 1948-1980
Ingrid M. Ockert, ABD, Princeton -
March 14, 2017
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Institutional History: A Model for Interconnected Digital Exhibits from Science Archives
Venkat Srinivasan (Bangalore, India) -
March 2, 2017
Left Radicalism and the Milky Way: Connecting the Scientific and Socialist Virtues of Anton Pannekoek
Tai Chaokang (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) -
February 24, 2017
Between Complacency and Panic’: Defining a Communicative Heuristic in an Age of Environmental Anxiety
Gabriel Henderson (Aarhus University, Denmark) -
February 23, 2017
Beyond Biology: HMS Challenger and Physical Oceanography
Penelope Hardy (Johns Hopkins University) -
February 16, 2017
The French scientists involved in the Tube Alloys and Manhattan projects – 1940-1945
Hervé Delime (Université Louis Pastreur, Strasbourg, France), -
June 16, 2015
Dualities Worth Knowing in the History of Physics
Leonardo Colletti -
March 25, 2015
Astronaut Ambassadors: The Apollo 11 Goodwill Tour and the Role of Space Exploration in Science Diplomacy
Teasel Muir-Harmony, Ph.D., Associate Historian at the Center for History of Physics at AIP -
February 24, 2015
Shaping a Middle Ground: Emergence of the AGU Committee on Environmental Quality, 1970–1974
Given by Gabriel Henderson, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Historian, Center for Science Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark -
November 19, 2014
"How We Lost 25% of the Universe; A History of Dark Matter”
Given by Jaco de Swart of the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam and the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University -
July 21, 2014
John Wheeler's H-bomb blues: Searching for a missing document at the height of the Cold War
Given by Alex Wellerstein, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for History of Physics -
April 2, 2013
Toward a social and cultural history of Big Bang cosmology
Given by Kendrick Oliver, Reader in American history at the University of Southampton -
March 22, 2013
Polarization on the prairie: The history of early polarimetry and ellipsometry in Nebraska
Given by Ron Synowicki, Woolam Co. Measurements Lab