Roberto Lalli and Jaume Navarro (eds.) Globalizing Physics One Hundred Years of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics

 Roberto Lalli and Jaume Navarro (eds.) Globalizing Physics One Hundred Years of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press 2024. 

Open access: https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/openaccess/9780198878681.pdf

Description

Following the centenary of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, this volume features contributions from leading science historians from around the world on the changing roles of the institution in international affairs from its foundation in 1922 to the present. The case studies presented in this volume show the multitude of functions that IUPAP had and how these were related to the changing international political contexts.

The book is divided into three parts. The first discusses the interwar period demonstrating how the exclusion of communities of the Central Powers from international scientific institutions imposed by victorious allied countries made IUPAP ineffective until the end of World War II. The second part analyzes the changing roles assumed by IUPAP starting from its complete renovation after World War II. Case studies covering the role of IUPAP in physics education, in metrology, in joint commissions with other unions and in defining the complex relations between pure and applied physics provide examples of IUPAP's impact on the world of science. Part III squarely addresses the science diplomacy aspects of IUPAP during the Cold War highlighting the importance of IUPAP in furthering diplomatic goals and explaining the origin of the pursuit of the free circulation of scientists as the activity that characterized the main function of international unions during the Cold War.

Highlighting how often scientific agendas and political imperatives were entangled in the activities of IUPAP, the book analyzes the work of the Union as exercises of science diplomacy, thus contributing to the current debate on the use of science and technology in international relations.

Table of Contents

Preface, Monica Pepe-Altarelli and Silvina Ponce Dawson

Introduction, Roberto Lalli and Jaume Navarro

PART I: IUPAP Between the Two World Wars

1:IUPAP and the Interwar World of Science, Danielle Fauque and Robert Fox

2:The "Happy Thirties"? Millikan's Troubled Presidency of IUPAP, Jaume Navarro

PART II: Reshaping IUPAP after World War II

3:From Diplomacy to Physics and Back Again: The Changing Roles of IUPAP in the Second Half of the 20th Century, Roberto Lalli

4:Drawing the Line between Pure and Applied Physics, Joseph D. Martin

5:Under the ICSU Umbrella: The Joint Commission on Radioactivity (1947-1955) Between IUPAP and IUPAC, Danielle Fauque and Brigitte Van Tiggelen

6:Restoring Physics: IUPAP's Commission on Education, Signature Pedagogies, and the Inter-National Politics of Science in the 1960s, Josep Simon

7:The Role of IUPAP in Shaping Metrological Practice: International Negotiation and Collaboration, Connemara Doran

8:Repairing a Scientific Network: The International Conference of Theoretical Physics in 1953 and the Rehabilitation of the Japanese Physics Community, Kenji Ito

Part III: Physics, Diplomacy, and the Cold War

9:Socialist Internationalism and Science Diplomacy Across the Iron Curtain: Geneva, Dubna, IUPAP, Climério Paulo da Silva Neto and Alexei Kojevnikov

10:Particles, Purity, Politics: Expanding International Exchange in High Energy Physics during the Cold War, Barbara Hof

11:China's Tortuous Path to IUPAP: An Enlightening Case of Chinese Science Diplomacy during the Cold War, Danian Hu, Jinyan Liu, and Xiaodong Yin

12:IUPAP, Cooperative Antagonism and the GDR, Doubravka Olšáková

13:Edoardo Amaldi and the Scientific Collaboration with the USSR, Daniele Cozzoli

14:National Individuals and International Unions: Gleb Wataghin's Experience with IUPAP (1951-1959), Luciana Vieira Souza da Silva

15:The Only (Tense) Encounter of a Non-existent Relationship? NATO, IUPAP and the 1963 Travel Ban Controversy, Simone Turchetti

Appendix: National Membership and Fees, 1919-1947, Danielle Fauque and Robert Fox