Engines of Innovation: the History of Physics Entrepreneurship (HoPE) Study

The Niels Bohr Library & Archives and the Center for History of Physics at AIP are beginning a three-year study of the role that entrepreneurship plays in industrial research & development. The project is funded by AIP and by the National Science Foundation. We plan to interview approximately 100 physicists and their associates, representing several different cohorts of physics start-up companies. We are currently choosing candidates for the interviews, and we will include representatives from five still-active companies that were founded before 1990 and fifteen companies that have started since 1990 and are still in the early stages of development. In addition we will interview physicists from five start-ups that have failed, and five start-ups that have been acquired by other companies. We are developing the question-sets that we will use, and we've attached a sample draft below.

We welcome your suggestions of interviewees and questions, along with questions or inquiries about the study. The HoPE Study has grown out of our recently completed, five-year Study of the History of Physicists in Industry (HoPI). In the earlier project, we interviewed approximately 130 physicists, R&D managers, records managers, librarians and archivists at 15 of the 27 largest industrial employers of physicists in the U.S. The final report of the HoPI study is online at http://www.aip.org/history/pubs/HOPI_Final_report.pdf. It provides a history of research in America’s major corporate laboratories over the last 40 years and contains strategies and recommendations for preserving the historically valuable records that they produce. An article on the findings is scheduled for publication in the July 2009 Physics Today.

One of the most significant findings of the HoPI study is the shift towards development (as opposed to research) in major corporate laboratories. Increasingly we found that researchers in the big corporate labs are involved in knowledge acquisition in the open market as opposed to knowledge creation. While scholars have described some aspects of this development, they have generally not addressed the Adam Smithian free market aspects of the new R&D, where new technical knowledge has become a tangible good traded in the marketplace. In the HoPE study we will look at scientific startups that are increasingly doing more basic, longer-term research and development and, when successful, placing knew knowledge and even potentially disruptive technologies on the marketplace.

We are currently developing a list of startup "engines of innovation," where at least one of the founders was a physicist who we can draw on for the interview portion of our study. We look forward to suggestions from readers for additions to the list. We also welcome comments and critiques of the draft question set (below).

Joe Anderson (janderso{at}aip.org),
Orville Butler (obutler{at}aip.org),
Gregory Good (ggood{at}aip.org)

Download:
HoPE Draft Question Set

Change and Continuity: The Niels Bohr Library & Archives and the Center for History of Physics

Last week in Einstein’s Apple, Greg talked about new directions in the Center for the History of Physics. This week I’d like to talk about the other side of the equation—the Niels Bohr Library & Archives’ ongoing programs (along with some new projects) and invite your feedback. Creating successful research programs requires a balancing act, building on existing resources and collections while taking advantage of new opportunities and technologies. Maintaining the right mix is one of our critical concerns as the Library and the Center continue to reinforce and support one another in a new era.

When I arrived at AIP’s newly completed College Park headquarters in November 1993, the Library was a much different place. The book catalog was still on cards, our International Catalog of Sources contained records for only about 2,500 archival collections, and every photo request was handled manually. Now, 15 years later all that and much more has changed. However, our philosophy--doing what we can do best in a single location while helping other organizations preserve the archival papers and records of their physicists and allied scientists—hasn’t changed and our mission remains the same: to preserve and make known the history of physics and allied sciences.

In fact, in some ways we haven’t changed at all. If you call the Library (301 209-3177) 8:30-5:00, Monday-Friday, the phone will still be answered by a librarian or archivist instead of a recording, and the reading room remains a quiet, friendly place to do research. In other ways, however, things are completely different. All of our catalogs are online and accessible through commercial search engines, ICOS contains about 9,000 records for collections from over 900 repositories worldwide, and over half of our 30,000 photos can be viewed and ordered on the Web. We’ve done many other things—for example conducting major projects to preserve our unique and often-fragile book collection; creating a consortial, cross-searchable database that contains over 370 finding aids from 49 different repositories; and developing a grants program that helps other archives preserve the papers of important physicists/allied scientists and report them to our ICOS catalog—that we couldn’t imagine 15 years ago.

At the same time, the Library and Center have pioneered a new approach to identifying hard-to-document areas of physics through two long-term studies of the records of Multi-Institutional Collaborations and Industrial Physicists. Both studies have produced reports (the industry study, published in November 2008, is online at (http://www.aip.org/history/pubs/HOPI_Final_report.pdf) that provide detailed advice and recommendations on how to preserve historical records essential to documenting these once largely unexplored areas.

Today, some of our newest initiatives include:

· A NEH-funded project to put 500 of our oral history transcripts online, along with photographs and audio clips for some of the interviews. Over 250 are already on the Web:(http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/transcripts.html).
· A NHPRC-funded project to put the full text of the 30 linear feet of Samuel Goudsmit’s papers on the Web, including his Project Alsos files and correspondence as APS editor in chief.
· A new archival/historical documentation project, the NSF-funded three-year study of Physics Entrepreneurship.
· And perhaps most important of all, a redesign of our Website to make all of the Library’s resources more intuitive and easier to use.

We welcome feedback, and we’ll soon begin a survey to get responses from those of you who use our online resources. In the meantime, please email or call me (janderso@aip.org, 301 209-3183) with ideas, suggestions, and questions.

Joe Anderson
Director, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
Associate Director, Center for History of Physics
American Institute of Physics

Whither the Center for History of Physics?

Whither, indeed? The Center for History of Physics has been around since the mid-1960s. At first it was located in lower Manhattan, near the United Nations, within the American Institute of Physics. It remains part of AIP, but along with AIP it is now headquartered in College Park MD, just outside Washington DC.

This month, the long-term director (since 1974) of the Center, Spencer Weart, retired. Under Weart, the Center built its reputation for preserving and making known the history of physics and allied sciences. He did this by building an unparalleled library of classic physics publications, organizing the collection of hundreds of oral history interviews with physicists and closely allied scientists such as astronomers and geoscientists, and making sure that archival collections of scientists' private papers found "appropriate homes." That is, the Center did not accept archival collections unless a better home could not be found. These activities produced two great outcomes: the Center connected to both scientists and historians of science by promoting historical writing and, second, it connected to other libraries and archives and helped them promote the Center's preservation goals. Indeed, the library and archival programs succeeded so well that this part of the Center's activities was renamed the Niels Bohr Library and Archives. Archivist Joan Warnow-Blewett, who taught Weart all he knows about archives (he says so himself!), certainly was a power behind that growing importance. Now the Niels Bohr Library and Archives is so important that Joe Anderson, associate director of the Center, is (co-equal) director of the Bohr Library.

The new kid on the block is me, Greg Good, who became director of the Center at the start of 2009. I come off of a stint of more than 26 years teaching history of science: as a graduate teaching assistant at the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto, Canada; a year as a faculty member at the University of Winnipeg; and then 26 years at West Virginia University. My first contact with the Center was through its newsletter, which I started reading in the 1970s, scanning it for tales of historical discovery, new oral histories, new archives. In the 80s I graduated to visiting the Center and Library in New York, applying for grants-in-aid, and conducting oral history interviews. In 2004 Spencer asked me to chair the Center's Advisory Committee. I felt honored and in over my head. But I persevered, learned ever more about the incredible professionalism of the staff, and finally, in 2009, here I am, taking over the helm.

Spencer Weart's accomplishments over his 34 years as director have put me in wonderful position. Beyond the strength of the Niels Bohr Library, the Center has built some of the best "web exhibits" on line on topics in history of science. Last year these web exhibits registered over 39 million page views! Moreover, through Weart's own books, articles, and conference presentations, he has built the Center's scholarly reputation. Through the post-doctoral fellowship for "Associate Historians," the Center has helped form a generation of younger historians of physics: Ron Doel, Patrick McCray, Alexei Kojevnikov, Babak Ashrafi, and Will Thomas, the current post-doc. (My apologies to anyone omitted. This is off the top of my head.) To recognize Weart's contributions to history of physics, the Avenir Foundation announced in early 2008 that it was endowing the Spencer Weart Directorship of the Center for History of Physics with a bequest of $3,000,000. The income from this endowment was designated to support the activities of the Center, beyond the Center's support from AIP. Hence the question I started with, "Whither the Center?"

I guess I don't have to mention the economic problems and their inevitable effect on the endowment, but even before that series of unfortunate events began to unfold, Spencer and I agreed that a conservative course of expenditure was the best plan. I only budgeted to use part of the income in 2009. That seems prescient now! So 2009 is mainly a year for reflection, planning, and conversation. No new big programs will begin this year. As a friend of mine in local government says, a town gets in trouble by over-committing in good times to things that can't be sustained in bad times.

So here, in general language, is what I am thinking about this year. I want the Center for History of Physics to become more of a physical meeting place for historians of science, as a balance to our exemplary web presence. I hope to do this in several ways. The Bohr Library has long hosted undergraduate and graduate interns in library science and archives management. The Center should also host interns in science and humanities programs to promote the humanistic study of science, and not incidently, to spur some young people to move into history of physics or to incorporate history in their physics activities. We take our first step in this direction this summer with one intern from AIP's program for members of Society of Physics Students. The intern will research and build a mini-web exhibit, Physics at the Edge of Space, Exploration of the Magnetosphere, based on photos, oral history interviews, and other materials in the Niels Bohr Library. As the economy bounces back and the endowment grows, the summer internship program should grow into a group workshop, perhaps involving K12 teachers or faculty of Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges, along with the undergraduate students.

Another dream of mine is to have a better funded, broader fellowship program replace or supplement the current grant-in-aid program. This broader program would maintain the goal of preserving and making known the history of physics and allied sciences, through oral history interviews, bringing scholars to the Center, etc. An equally important goal, though, is to work towards bringing a critical mass of scholars and scientists here for thematic conferences and workshops. By promoting meetings at the Center, we can foster a stronger sense of community, something the internet can't fully accomplish.

Lastly, public outreach is important, too, if the Center for History of Physics is to become a physical meeting place. In the last few years journalists, historians of physics, and historians of science more broadly have presented their work to the public here: Walter Isaacson, Dan Kevles, John Heilbron, Nancy Greenspan, and more. I intend to continue this and, if possible, to expand the offerings.

For now, though, it's time to go slowly. As the Zen master says, don't just do something, sit there. It's time to reflect to assure that the action can be sustained and that it takes the Center for History of Physics in an interesting and useful direction.

Greg Good
Director, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics

www.aip.org/history