"Training Scientists, Crafting Science: Educational Formation in the Physical Sciences, 1800-2000," a conference hosted by David Kaiser, assistant professor of the history and culture of science and lecturer in the Department of Physics, will be held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 20-21.
"Scientists are not born, they are made," Kaiser said. "To probe the interrelations between scientists' training, learning and research efforts - and to begin to right the imbalance within the science-studies literature - I've convened a special two-part workshop during the spring and fall of 2002 with generous financial support from the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the Provost's Fund for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at MIT." The first session was held in January.
Featuring 16 talks by historians, sociologists and anthropologists of science, the conference will look at different ways that physical scientists have been trained in various times and places, such as Victorian England, Cold War America and Japan between the world wars, and the effects this training has had on resulting research traditions.
All sessions will be held in Room E51-095 and are free and open to the public. Click here for more information about the conference.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 18, 2002.
