Article
ID: CBB376414880

Nominating Bridgman for the Nobel Prize: The Motives and Strategy of the Harvard Scientists (2020)

unapi
Science and society Physics Nobel Prizes Shapley, Harlow Bridgman, Percy Williams Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT

Percy Williams Bridgman, known for his high pressure experiment and publications in the philosophy of science, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946. Although the nominators of his home institution Harvard University recognized his achievementsʼ apparent unfitness for the prize—results of a lifelong incremental pursuit outside quantum physics—, having failed to catch up with the contemporary trend of physical research, they found Bridgman to be almost the only candidate from the university. The nomination letters, especially those by the Harvard and MIT physicists, reveal not only their esteem of their candidateʼs scientific research but also their evaluation of his philosophical work and contribution to solid state physics, thereby disclosing unknown aspects of the interaction between Bridgman and his colleagues.

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Authors & Contributors
Okamoto, Takuji
Lindqvist, Svante
Abelmann, Walter H.
Abir-Am, Pnina Geraldine
Beretta, Marco
Crawford, Elisabeth T.
Journals
Historia Scientiarum: International Journal of the History of Science Society of Japan
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza
Physics in Perspective
British Journal for the History of Science
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences
Publishers
University of Wisconsin at Madison
Aracne
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Distributed by Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press
The MIT Press
University of Chicago Press
Concepts
Science and society
Nobel Prizes
Physics
Prizes; awards
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Medicine
People
Bridgman, Percy Williams
Bernard, Claude
Bourbaki, Nicolas, pseud.
Charcot, Jean Martin
Copernicus, Nicolaus
Darwin, Charles Robert
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
19th century
21st century
Places
United States
Germany
Great Britain
France
Americas
Institutions
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT
Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
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