Doctoral Dissertation Student: Kristie Macrakis; Dissertation topic: "Research between science and politics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the Third Reich." Science does not exist in a void. It affects and is affected by the society in which it is embedded. Having said this, however, does not necessarily imply that scientific institutions must automatically follow society's lead. There are important examples in this century of scientific institutions which have resisted political and social pressures. Several scientific institutes in the Soviet Union, for example, provided shelter for geneticists and their research during the period of Lysenkoism when orthodox genetics was officially condemned. During the horrors of the Nazi Third Reich, scientific institutions also resisted official pressure. The purpose of Ms. Mackrakis' research is to examine the impact of Nazi policies on science and its organization at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society while seeking out the factors that allowed an oasis of high quality science to continue. Important here is the changing nature of the developments at the KWG; thus the development went through three phases: 1) 1933-36: While Max Planck was still president of the Society he could preserve some of the Society's autonomy; 2) 1937- 39: The appointment of an industrialist as president with the concomitant encroachment of more politics into the Society's affairs; and 3) 1939-45: the war years. Ms. Macrakis will use the travel funds from this grant to examine files which will help to determine what happened to the Society in the last, war period. This research will serve to provide much needed new information concerning the interaction of science in society during a period of extreme upheaval. She has already published on her topic. Her dissertation promises to be a significant contribution to this important area of study.
