In the 20th century, geophysics moved from industrial laboratories and endowed research facilities into the university. It was one of the last major branches of physical science in the United States to do so. The transformation of geophysics into a university-based discipline challenged geologists, geophysicists, and university administrators who wrestled with the sharp conflict between solid earth geophysicists and field geologists over proper methodological approaches and the daunting diversity of geophysics' component fields. Geophysicists sought to develop academic facilities in part to approach complex problems such as the nature of the Earth's core through interdisciplinary contacts readily available at universities. Its leaders also sought to develop professional centers for training new recruits to the field. By the 1960s, the rapid growth of geophysics reshaped existing departments of geological sciences and reoriented the study of geological phenomena. Yet because the history of geophysics remains largely unexplored, little is known about these significant and far- reaching changes. Given the importance of interdisciplinary research in modern science, the subject merits special attention. Dr. Doel is concentrating on the period from the early 1920s through the 1960s, utilizing the growth of solid earth geophysics to explore several broad themes including discipline formation, the development of American research universities, and the influence of patronage and institutional settings on the production of scientific knowledge. This study is being undertaken at the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The AIP is playing an important role in this project, including the preservation of historical "raw data" such as unpublished correspondence, institutional records, and tape-recorded recollections, using methods AIP has developed for similar projects in other fields.
