Call for Applications
Visiting Scholars-in-Residence
The Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna invites
applications for visiting scholars-in-residence to participate in the
following project:
Austrian Nuclear Research
Between the Conflicting Demands of International Cooperation and Global
Competition (1900-1945)
Project Director: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Carola Sachse
Aims
The visiting scholars-in-residence will help build an international and
interdisciplinary network of historians of science working on the history of
radioactivity and nuclear physics. There are no restrictions on their
nationality. Research stipends ("Werkverträge") for a period of two to four
months will be provided. Scholars at all levels of seniority are eligible,
provided they have at least one university degree.
Scholars will be in residence at the project location in Vienna for the
duration of their grants. All are requested to make provisions for their own
health insurance. They will have daily contact with many of the
approximately 25 members of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for
Contemporary History) at the University of Vienna. They will have their own
workplaces at the Institute and will have assistance in finding
accommodations in Vienna. They are expected to present the results of their
research at one of the two conferences related to the project, in spring
2009 or in summer 2010. They are invited to include their findings in the
anthology that will be published after the second conference in 2010.
Research Fields
Applicants should submit a research proposal on one or a combination of two
or more of the following topics:
-Laboratory system and material culture of Austrian nuclear research
-Research activities in radiochemistry and physical chemistry in Vienna and
other Austrian research institutes
-Role of research networks – Nuclear research in Middle and Eastern European
countries, the U.S.A. or the Soviet Union, and the „Vienna School" of
nuclear physics
-Transfer of knowledge by migration – Influence of the Vienna School on the
host countries of exiled Austrian physicists
-Adoption of the theory of relativity or of quantum mechanics by Austrian
nuclear physicists
-Transformation of scientific research in time of war – War-related research
in Austria during the Sec-ond World War and reconversion to civilian
technologies after 1945
-Reactivation of Pre-War and war-related networks in the post-war era – The
case of South America
-Relations between radioactivity research and medical-radiobiological
research and related spin-offs by the Vienna Radium Institute
Modified or self-formulated proposals on topics that can further our
research project are welcome.
For further information about the project, see its website
<http://www.univie.ac.at/wmg> (in German) or for assistance in preparing
proposals, contact the project researcher, Dr. Silke Fengler (e-mail
silke.feng...@univie.ac.at; phone: 0043-1-4277-41238; fax 0043-1-4277-9412).
Duration of the scholarships: 2 to 4 months between December 2008 and March
2010
Remuneration: € 2.000 per month (travel and living expenses included)
Application deadline: July 15, 2008
Selection of Candidates: September 15, 2008
Each application should include:
• project description (1 - 2 pages)
• curriculum vitae
• list of publications
• information on when and how long the applicant proposes
to work in Vienna
Submit to:
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
„Kernforschungsprojekt"
Spitalgasse 2-4/Hof 1
A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Project Personnel
Project Director: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Carola Sachse carola.sac...@univie.ac.at
Project Coordinator: Dr. Silke Fengler silke.feng...@univie.ac.at
Research Assistant: Mag.a Christine Schaffrath
christineschaffr...@hotmail.com
General Information
Toward the end of the 19th century, research on radioactivity increasingly
attracted physicists and chemists in Vienna, partly because the Austrian
Empire had exclusive access to the pitchblende mines in Bohemia. Vienna thus
became a distribution point in Europe for this new raw material. The Vienna
Institute for Radium Research, established in 1910 within the framework of
the Austrian Academy of Sciences, became one of the key centres for the
transfer of knowledge to the interdisciplinary and international network of
researchers on radioactivity. Paris and Vienna were the locations of the
international radium standard. From its opening in 1910, the Vienna
Institute for Radium Research thus both served Austrian research interests
and became a source of international cooperation.
The interruption of international relations and research on radioactivity
during and immediately after World War I has not been fully investigated by
scholars. Further, during the 1920s and 1930s, research on radioactivity
began to be divided among the various subfields of radiochemistry,
investigated in particular in Curie's Radium Institute in Paris, and nuclear
physics, especially in Rutherford´s laboratories in Manchester and
Cambridge. It seems that an analogous division did not occur in Vienna, but
little is actually known to date about the related research programs at the
Radium Institute and the Physics Institutes of the University of Vienna.
Perhaps more problematic than the political shift under the Dollfuss
dictatorship was the impact of the global economic crisis on scientific work
at the beginning of the 1930s. No comprehensive analysis of the Radium
Institute´s financial situation and the financial consequences of the
inflation of the 1920s and of the economic crisis of the 1930s for nuclear
research in Austria has yet been carried out.
The Anschluss of Austria by Germany in 1938 had a more massive impact on
Austrian and Viennese scientific practice. Numerous Austrian nuclear
researchers lost their jobs as a consequence of the anti-Jewish laws and
measures. National Socialist scientists and opportunistic fellow travellers
were appointed to their positions. With the financial aid of the Third
Reich, institutions for nuclear research in Vienna were reorganized. The
Second Institute of Physics and the Institute for Radium Research were
merged, creating the Four-Year-Plan Institute for Neutron Research. This
reorganization was accompanied by a reorientation of nuclear research. The
potential of producing a nuclear weapon prompted all scientists outside
Germany and Austria to break off relations with their former colleagues and
their research centres in the Third Reich. This rupture in international
scientific relations, however, was accompanied by a new ensemble of
relations and contacts when Austrian nuclear research was integrated into
the German Uranverein. The Austrian role within the Uranverein has not yet
been thoroughly investigated.
After liberation from the Nazi dictatorship, former National Socialists were
temporarily suspended and dismissed from government service, among them the
directors of the Second Institute of Physics and the Institute for Radium
Research. Despite this hiatus, Austrian nuclear physicists continued their
research under Allied supervision. This resulted in a new transfer of
knowledge in the form of migration to the United States, the Soviet Union,
and the German Democratic Republic, where they continued their research
under new political authorities. Existing historical research suggests that
their old ties were at least partly maintained, and that they established
new professional and scientific networks. Dr. Christian Forstner
(University of Jena, Germany) will examine nuclear research in Austria
within the later framework of Austria's full sovereignty and neutrality and
the reintegration of Austria into the international scientific community,
which ultimately led Austria to join CERN in 1959.
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Shobita Parthasarathy, Assistant Professor
Co-Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
Ford School of Public Policy
University of Michigan
For the 2007-2008 academic year:
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004-3027
Tel: 202/691-4123
Fax: 202/691-4001
shob...@umich.edu
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