This professional development fellowship will allow the recipient to study and conduct research in science and technology studies (STS) and science policy at the Center for the Study of Science in Society at Virginia Polytechnic University. The primary research project during the fellowship is the development of a policy history of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). The demise of the SSC project is potent indication that the days of science as an `endless frontier,` with an indulgent government patron, are over. Furthermore, the demise highlights many divergent values and attitudes which separate the physics and policy communities. This research project has begun with an examination of government documents and the published literature on the SSC. The fellow will use the fellowship support and travel funds from the Center for the History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics to work with several historians and philosophers of science who are studying the history of the SSC and to conduct oral history interviews of senior physicists who were involved with the project. The oral histories will enrich the SSC narrative already described in the literature and permit analysis of the different values and attitudes which led to its demise. Undertaking this research will allow the fellow to develop expertise in STS research and policy analysis. An intensive program of graduate courses at the University will allow him to survey the basic themes in STS, including the historical and social science research methods which are a critical part of the SSC research project.
