The Peaceful Atom in Eastern Europe

The Niels Bohr Archive's History of Science Seminar

Monday 29 May, 14.15
Aud. A, Niels Bohr Institute
Blegdamsvej 17, Copenhagen




I have the pleasure of inviting you to another seminar in the Niels Bohr Archive's irregular series. Paul Josephson, who a year ago talked to us about Putin's nuclear energy programme, will return to speak on aspects of its historical background in Eastern Europe. I look forward to seeing you there. Please also tell about this event to friends and colleagues who may be interested. As always, further information about our activities is available on www.nba.nbi.dk


Finn Aaserud
Director
Niels Bohr Archive
Blegdamsvej 17
DK-2100 Copenhagen

The Peaceful Atom in Eastern Europe
In the 1950s and 1960s, the nations of East Central Europe embarked on a series of programs to harness the atom to the engine of socialist progress. For party leaders and engineers, applications in industry, agriculture, medicine and especially nuclear power promised economic growth, improvements in public health and national security, and generation of copious quantities of electrical energy. All of these would demonstrate that the nations had rapidly been transformed from agriculturally-based peasant societies into modern industrial powers. The peaceful atom was a symbol of modernity. The peaceful atom was also a major symbol of the cold war rivalries between East and West, the USSR and the United States, the Warsaw Pact and NATO nations. For this reason, Soviet officials and scientists took special interest in seeing those programs develop in Eastern Europe, while controlling military applications. Not surprisingly, Soviet technological approaches and styles predominated in the design and diffusion of nuclear programs in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Lithuania. The talk will discuss these peaceful programs with a focus on the crucial Soviet technological influences.

Paul Josephson
Colby College, Waterville, Maine, USA

Two positions in Göteborg:

New Initiative in Public Learning and Understanding of Science (PLUS)

Due to a generous grant from the Hasselblad Foundation, Göteborg University (GU) and the Chalmers University of Technology recently appointed the first Hasselblad Professor of Public Learning and Understanding of Science (PLUS). The universities now invite applications for two further positions in PLUS to be associated with the new Chair and a joint Centre for PLUS to be launched later on this year. The Chair, the Centre and the advertised positions will all be hosted by the Section of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at GU. Research goals include producing new insights into how people outside of school learn about and engage with science in different arenas, studying how the interaction with science can influence personal and public decisions, and linking public science practices to broader societal discussions on welfare, expertise and democracy. Applications from the natural sciences, social sciences, medicine, humanities and engineering are welcome to join a team working to better understand and further stimulate public cultures of science.

Ref nr E 36 1879/06
Research Associate - postdoctoral level,
3 year position:
Primary responsibility is to conduct a research project on PLUS. In addition, the researcher shall assist the Hasselblad Professor with the running of the new Centre, as well as fulfill certain teaching obligations. Requires a Ph.D. preferably addressing science communication practices and the study of science in public. Experiences with interdisciplinary projects and the Swedish university system are highly desirable.

Ref nr E 36 1881/06
Ph.D. Candidate
4 year position:
The successful applicant should pursue a Ph.D. project analysing patterns of public engagement with science in arenas such as science centers, the Internet, social movements or patient organisations. Research should aim to relate public science practices to broader discussions of science, democracy and citizenship in contemporary knowledge societies. The applicant must have a B.A. or M.A. degree with a disciplinary orientation towards STS, in accordance with guidelines set out at http://www.sts.gu.se/phd.
(Or: http://www.sts.gu.se/phd/default.html red.)


Fur further information please contact Head of STS Section, Professor Hans Glimell, + 46 31 773 1314, hans.glimell@sts.gu.se, or the Hasselblad Professor, Ilan Chabay, + 46 31 773 1321 or + 1 3018027729, ilan.chabay@sts.gu.se.

Contact persons for employees' organizations: SACO, Inger Wilgotson Lundh +46 31 773 1987; OFR/S, Eva Sjögren +46 31 773 1169; SEKO, Lennart Olsson +46 31 773 1173. Applications, including documents specified above and bearing the reference number, should be sent to: Göteborgs universitet, Samhällsvetenskapliga fakultetskansliet, Box 720, SE-405 30 Göteborg.

Applications should be received no later than May 31, 2006 (the paper documents should bear the post cache with a date previous or coincident with the deadline). 1020-06 155x160 GU tina.indd 1 2006-04-27 10:35:32