Science education in the United States was largely based on models drawn from Germany. Young Americans interested in pursuing a career in science went to Germany for advanced education. This practice continued well into the 20th century--for example, Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," studied quantum physics in Germany. Thus, if one wants to understand science education in America, one must understand its origins in Germany. A central focus in studies of the development of science in Germany are the scientific institutes of the universities. Their creation in the last third of the 19th century sparked an "institutional revolution" that Thomas Kuhn has called the "Second Scientific Revolution" owing to its importance for providing the organizational structure that made possible the remarkable intellectual advances of the modern era. To date, most studies have investigated the institutes of physics, chemistry, or physiology. Dr. Richmond is presenting a detailed archival study of the institutionalization of zoology in Munich University. One of the largest and most important centers of zoology in Germany, Munich harbored all of the major research programs of this period: Naturphilosophie, "scientific" zoology, and experimental zoology. By examining the cognitive, institutional, and socioeconomic factors that influenced the development of zoology in Munich over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the study provides new information about the fine structure of the operation of one institute, and its findings can be applied more generally to broaden our understanding of the development of zoology during this critical period in its history.
