미국물리협회(AIP)와 순수/응용 물리학자들의 갈등

Abstract

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) was founded in 1931 as a loose association of five societies in physics. The original aim of the AIP was to achieve economies of scale in the publication of its journals, but it soon broadened its boundaries and sought to legitimize physics’ contribution to American society during and after the Great Depression. The promotion of applied physics was one of AIP’s efforts to achieve the social legitimation of physics in the 1930s. It was mainly targeted at industry to make industrial leaders recognize the value of physics in industry and to secure financial support and jobs from industry. AIP organized several conferences, which emphasized practical benefits of physics to industry. At the same time, AIP organized conferences on applied physics, mainly to receive advice from leaders of industrial laboratories on problems of physics education and necessary qualifications for industrial physicists. In highlighting the benefits of physics to industry and discussing the appropriate qualifications of applied physicists, AIP exposed conflicting ideas among American physicists on the purpose of physics education for college students. It revealed the tension between academic physics professors and industrial physicists, the generation gap between classical and modern physics, and the shifting balance between the needs of society and those of the discipline. The tension, gap, and shifting balance were most clearly and sharply presented in how to teach physics students, what subject to teach, and what moral ethos to be cultivated in college.