From Materials Science to Nanotechnology: Institutions, Communities, and Disciplines at Cornell University, 1960-2000

摘要

During the last several decades, interdisciplinary research centers have emerged as astandard, powerful tool for federal funding of university research. This paper contendsthat this organizational model can be traced to the ‘‘Interdisciplinary Laboratories’’program funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1960. The novelty ofthe IDL program was that it created a peer group of university laboratories withsustained funding to ensure their institutional stability. The Cornell Materials ScienceCenter, one of the first three Interdisciplinary Laboratories, served as a breedingground for a new community of engineering faculty members, who subsequentlyhelped establish a series of interdisciplinary research centers at Cornell, including theNational Research and Resource Facility for Submicron Structures (or National Submicron Facility) in 1977. The Materials Science Center and National SubmicronFacility provided explicit models for the expansion and coordination of networks ofinterdisciplinary centers, both within single universities (such as Cornell) and acrossmultiple campuses (through programs such as the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network and the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers). The centermodel has proved both flexible and durable in the face of changing demands onuniversities. By examining the Materials Science Center and the National SubmicronFacility, we show that recent institutional developments perceived as entirely novelhave their roots in the high Cold War years.