Professor
Chair, Department of History
Education
AB, 1990, University of Chicago, history and philosophy of science; also completed requirements for AB, physics, and SB, mathematics
AM, 1993, Harvard University, physics
PhD, 1995, Harvard University, history of science
Research Interests
Primary fields
- History of 20th-century physics: conceptual, cultural, social, political
- Relations between science and philosophy and between scientists and philosophers
- History of science in Germany and the United States
- Nuclear history
- History and ethnography of contemporary research institutions
Secondary fields
- History of technology
- Modern German history
- Intellectual history (European, U.S.)
Current Research
- Heidegger and modern theoretical physics
- Ethnography of data science
- Engineering nuclear waste: Constructing knowledge and uncertainty across timescales
Campus Service
Operational Lead, Data Science Education Program, 2016-present
Chair of the Faculty Advisory Board, Data Science Planning Initiative, 2015-2016 (info here, FAB report here)
Co-Chair, Data Sciences Education Rapid Action Team, 2014 (report: Sketch 1.2, 1/19/2015)
Associate Dean of Social Sciences, 2010-2014
Operational Lead and Interim Director, D-Lab (Social Sciences Data Laboratory), 2012-2014
Berkeley Collegium Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, 2017
Distinguished Service Award, Division of Social Sciences, 2014
Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award, 2014
Books
Co-Editor (with Joonhong Ahn, Mikael Jensen, Kohta Juraku, Shinya Nagasaki, and Satoru Tanaka), Reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident: Toward social-scientific literacy and engineering resilience (Heidelberg: Springer, forthcoming 2015). | |
Co-Editor (with Alexei Kojevnikov and Helmuth Trischler), Weimar Culture and Quantum Mechanics: Selected Papers by Paul Forman and Contemporary Perspectives on the Forman Thesis (London: Imperial College Press, 2011). | |
Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). | |
Co-Editor (with David A. Hollinger), Reappraising Oppenheimer: Centennial Studies and Reflections (Berkeley: Office for History of Science and Technology, 2005). |
Selected Articles
Carson, Cathryn. "Knowledge economies: Research and war." Cambridge history of World War II, vol. III, Part A. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2015.
Carson, Cathryn. "Engineers, social scientists, and nuclear power: A narrative from within." In Reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident: Toward social-scientific literacy and engineering resilience, ed. Joonhong Ahn, Cathryn Carson, Mikael Jensen, Kohta Juraku, Shinya Nagasaki, and Satoru Tanaka. Heidelberg: Springer, forthcoming 2015.
Sunderland, Mary E., Behnam Taebi, Cathryn Carson, and William Kastenberg. "Teaching global perspectives: Engineering ethics across international and academic borders." Journal of responsible innovation 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23299460.2014.922337.
Carson, Cathryn. Chapter in Blazing the trail: Essays by leading women in science, ed. Emma Ideal and Rhiannon Meharchand, 59-65. Irvine, CA: CreateSpace, 2013.
Carson, Cathryn. "Method, moment, and crisis in Weimar science." In Weimar thought: A critical history, ed. Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick, 179-199. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.
Carson, Cathryn. "Modern or antimodern science? Weimar culture, natural science, and the Heidegger-Heisenberg exchange." In Weimar culture and quantum mechanics: Selected papers by Paul Forman and contemporary perspectives on the Forman Thesis, ed. Cathryn Carson, Alexei Kojevnikov, and Helmuth Trischler, 523-542. London: Imperial College Press, 2011.
Carson, Cathryn. "Science as instrumental reason: Heidegger, Habermas, Heisenberg." Continental Philosophy Review 42 (2010): 483-509.
Carson, Cathryn. "Beyond reconstruction: CERN's second generation accelerator program as an indicator of shifts in West German science." In Physics and politics: Research and research support in twentieth century Germany in international perspective, ed. Helmuth Trischler and Mark Walker, 107-130. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, v. 5. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2010.
Carson, Cathryn. "Science policy as Ordnungspolitik: Heisenberg as social and political theorist in the scientific-technical age." In Who is making science? Scientists as makers of technical-scientific structures and administrators of science policy, ed. Albert Presas i Puig, MPI Preprint 361, 35-44. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, 2008.
Carson, Cathryn. "The revolution in science." In A companion to Europe, 1900-1945, ed. Gordon Martel, 19-34. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
Carson, Cathryn. "Heisenberg als Wissenschaftsorganisator." In Werner Heisenberg 1901-1976: Beiträge, Berichte, Briefe — Festschrift zu seinem 100. Geburtstag, ed. Christian Kleint, Helmut Rechenberg, and Gerald Wiemers, 214-222. Stuttgart: S. Hirzel, 2005.
Carson, Cathryn. "Reflections on Copenhagen." In Michael Frayn's Copenhagen in debate: Historical essays and documents on the 1941 meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, ed. Matthias Dörries, 7-17. Berkeley: Office for History of Science and Technology, 2005.
Soo, Mary, and Cathryn Carson. "Managing the research university: Clark Kerr and the University of California." Minerva 42 (2004): 215-236.
Carson, Cathryn. "Objectivity and the scientist: Heisenberg rethinks." Science in context 16 (2003): 243-269.
Carson, Cathryn. "Bildung als Konsumgut: Physik in der westdeutschen Nachkriegskultur." In Physik im Nachkriegsdeutschland, ed. Dieter Hoffmann, 73-85. Frankfurt: Harri Deutsch, 2003.
Carson, Cathryn. "Nuclear energy development in postwar West Germany: Struggles over cooperation in the Federal Republic's first reactor station." History and technology 18 (2002): 233-270.
Carson, Cathryn, and Michael Gubser. "Science advising and science policy in postwar West Germany: The example of the Deutscher Forschungsrat." Minerva 40 (2002): 147-179.
Carson, Cathryn. "Heisenberg and the framework of science policy." Fortschritte der Physik 50 (2002): 432-436.
Carson, Cathryn. "Old programs, new politics? Nuclear reactor studies after 1945 in the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik." In Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus: Bestandaufnahme und Perspektiven der Forschung, ed. Doris Kaufmann, 726-749. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2000.
Carson, Cathryn. "The origins of the quantum theory." Beam line (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) 30:2 (2000): 6-19.
Carson, Cathryn. "New models for science in politics: Heisenberg in West Germany." Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences30, no. 1 (1999): 115-171.
Carson, Cathryn. "The peculiar notion of exchange forces — I: Origins in quantum mechanics, 1926-1928." Studies in history and philosophy of modern physics 27 (1996): 23-45. "II: From nuclear forces to QED, 1929-1950." Studies in history and philosophy of modern physics 27 (1996): 99-131.
Carson, Cathryn. "Who wants a postmodern physics?" Science in context 8 (1995): 635-655.
Faux, D.A. Faux, G. Gaynor, C.L. Carson, C.K. Hall, and J. Bernholc. “Computer simulation studies of the growth of strained layers by molecular-beam epitaxy.” Phys. Rev. B42 (1990): 2914-2922.
Carson, C.L., J. Bernholc, D. Faux, and C.K. Hall. “Efficient techniques for computer simulations of heteroepitaxial growth.” App. Phys. Lett. 56 (1990): 1971-1973.