Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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GP: Fachverband Geschichte der Physik

GP 7: Nobelpreis

GP 7.1: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 14:00–14:40, HSZ 204

Cold War and the Nobel Prizes in Physics: From Molecular Beams to the Bubble Chamber — •Karl Grandin — Center for History of Science, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm

The Nobel Prize in physics is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences according to the will of Alfred Nobel. During the two World Wars the awarding was partly halted, Otto Stern was awarded the 1943 Nobel Prize in 1944, so that becomes the starting point for this investigation, which can also be seen as roughly the starting point for the Cold war. The Nobel archives are only open to research 50 years after the award so the final year will here be 1960.

Did in any discernable way the Cold war influence the awarding of the Nobel Prizes, and what role did the Swedish policy of neutrality and non-alignment politics possibly play? The basic question would here be to what degree did Cold war politics influence the workings of the Nobel system? This can be seen as a part of the more general theme of nationalism, when it comes to the Nobel Prize process, which has been addressed in earlier research. But the Cold war period also added other dimensions to this one might think. From an investigation into the files of the Nobel Committee some figures will be drawn, the sample is the Nobel Prize records in the years 1944-1960. Was there discrimination for either side when it came to invitations to nominate candidates? Was there cross nominations over the iron curtain? How did the Nobel Committee judge the two sides? Are there any other biases that these samples indicate?