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Whose Biography Is It Anyway? Shared Biographies of Institutions, Leaders, Instruments, and Self

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Biographies in the History of Physics
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Abstract

My life-long career preoccupation has been to better understand how large-scale science develops in its most obvious natural habitat, that is, the laboratory, in particular the U.S. national laboratories. Thus, in addition to exploring the dramas and drama queens of high-energy physics, I have also investigated more exotic nooks, kooks, and crannies of these laboratories. As a result my research has focused on nuclear physics, materials science, and engineering projects as well as a variety of laboratory actors: scientists, engineers, elite advisors, funding officials, and upon occasion, laboratory directors.

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Correspondence to Catherine Westfall .

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Westfall, C. (2020). Whose Biography Is It Anyway? Shared Biographies of Institutions, Leaders, Instruments, and Self. In: Forstner, C., Walker, M. (eds) Biographies in the History of Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48509-2_12

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