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The Near-Appointment of Linus Pauling at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Linus Pauling, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, should have been a prize for any university. Yet, he was denied a position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1964. His liberal activism apparently was too much for university officials to stomach; the McCarthy period still cast a dismal shadow.

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Correspondence to Lawrence Badash.

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Lawrence Badash is Professor Emeritus of History of Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Badash, L. The Near-Appointment of Linus Pauling at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Phys. perspect. 11, 4–14 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-008-0387-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-008-0387-1

Keywords:

  • Linus Pauling
  • Frederick Wall
  • Vernon Cheadle
  • Clark Kerr
  • Ronald Reagan
  • University of California, Santa Barbara
  • University of California, San Diego
  • Caltech
  • Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions
  • Nobel Prize
  • McCarthy period
  • chemistry
  • atmospheric testing
  • communism