Thesis ID: CBB787688478

A Mathematical Life: Richard Courant, New York University and Scientific Diplomacy in Twentieth Century America (2015)

unapi

This dissertation considers the career of the mathematician Richard Courant (1888-1972) and the development of New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences to study the manifold ways in which mathematics and science can function as objects of—and catalysts to—international cultural exchange in times of both peace and war. I trace the cultural history of this research and teaching mathematics institute, with a particular focus on the dynamic relationships between the Courant Institute mathematicians and their peers in the military, government, private foundations and academia – both in the United States and abroad. I examine the careers of the Institute’s founder, the German, Jewish émigré Richard Courant, and his colleagues as they fled from Nazi Germany, immigrated to the United States, and then negotiated the complex landscape of academic research and public service during the Second World War and in the postwar and Cold War eras. I argue that the Courant Institute mathematicians understood their own social roles and cultural identities to be more than academic. They were scientific ambassadors to postwar Germany and the Cold War Soviet Union; contracted scientific advisors and researchers to the military and government; and informants on the status of scientific life in other nations to the American government and private organizations. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the Courant Institute mathematicians, engaged in what is widely understood to be a cerebral endeavor, were part and parcel of their social, cultural and political environment throughout the twentieth-century in the United States and abroad. Their history provides a unique view on not only the production of mathematical knowledge, but also on the role mathematicians have played in twentieth-century American culture and society.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB787688478/

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Authors & Contributors
Sørensen, Henrik Kragh
Mazliak, Laurent
Pierre Journoud
Anne-Laure Anizan
Anne-Sandrine Paumier
Hill, Ted
Concepts
Mathematicians
Mathematics
Science and politics
Identity
Science and society
Biographies
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
21st century
18th century
Places
Latin America
Germany
France
Prague (Czechia)
Argentina
United States
Institutions
Courant institute of mathematical sciences
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