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Stuewer, Roger H.,
Oral history interview with Roger Stuewer, 2020 July 9.
This is an interview with Roger Stuewer, Professor Emeritus, History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Stuewer recounts his childhood in rural Wisconsin, and he discusses his undergraduate work in physics education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the formative course in optics taught by Ed Miller. He describes his service in the U.S. Army and his deployment to Germany in the mid-1950s, and the opportunities provided by the GI Bill to further his education. He discusses his brief career teaching high school math and physics before he was offered an instructor job in physics at Heidelberg College. Stuewer describes the circumstances leading to his return to Wisconsin to pursue a graduate degree in the history of science, where he was advised by Erwin Hiebert and where he was deeply influenced by Heinz Barschall. He describes his fascination with Arthur Holly Compton and the Compton Effect which was the subject of his dissertation, and he explains his decision to join the faculty at Minnesota. Stuewer recounts his efforts to build the history of science and technology program there, and the opportunities he was afforded with a joint appointment in the physics department. He describes some of the major methodological and historiographical debates in the field over the course of his career, including competing ideas of whether the history of physics should be pursued at the conceptual level or have as its focus social phenomena. Stuewer discusses the major impact of Thomas Kuhn and he explains his decision to take a faculty position at Boston University before returning to Minnesota for the rest of his career, where he subsequently focused on the history of nuclear physics. He describes his motivations for creating a symposium on this topic, where Han Bethe delivered introductory remarks, and he explains his longstanding interest in John Hasbrouck Van Vleck. Stuewer describes his advisory work for AIPs history program, and how his work as an editor for the American Journal of Physics provided him a unique vantage point of the field. At the end of the interview, Stuewer reflects on what his scholarship has taught him about how humankind makes sense of the physical world.
Roger Stuewer is an American historian of physics and a Professor Emeritus of History of Science and Technology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He holds a PhD in the history of science from University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has taught at Heidelberg College, University of Minnesota, and Boston University.
Barschall, H. H. (Henry Herman), 1915-1997
Bethe, Hans A. (Hans Albrecht), 1906-2005
Compton, Arthur Holly, 1892-1962
Hiebert, Erwin Nick, 1919-
Kuhn, Thomas S.
Stuewer, Roger H.,
Van Vleck, J. H. (John Hasbrouck), 1899-1980
American Journal of Physics.
Boston University
United States. Army
United States. Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944
University of Minnesota
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Compton effect.
Nuclear physics -- History.
Optics
Physics -- History.
Physics -- Social aspects.
Physics -- Study and teaching
Quantum theory -- History.
Science -- Historiography.
Science -- History.
Science -- Philosophy.
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA
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