Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Peter Galison

Professor of History of Science and PhysicsCambridge, MA

Expert
Listen to Peter Galison’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

Peter Galison is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in History of Science and Physics at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in both Physics and the History of Science in 1983. The central component of Galison’s work involves the exploration of twentieth century physics, including atomic, nuclear, and particle physics. In particular, he examines physics as a closely interconnected set of scientific subcultures: experimenters, instrument makers, and theorists.

Galison has published a number of books, including Big Science: The Growth of Large-scale ResearchImage and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics, and Einstein for the 21st Century: His Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture.

Galison courses include: “History and Philosophy of 20th-Century Physics;” “History and Philosophy of Experimentation;” “Fascism, Art and Science in the Interwar Years;” “Scientific Realism;” “The Einsteinian Revolution;” seminars on Critical History and on the History and Philosophy of Theory in 20th Century Physics; and “Filming Science.”

Peter Galison’s Timeline
1955 Born in New York.

1983 Received Ph.D. in Physics and History of Science from Harvard University.

Related Profiles

Ray Smith

Trinity Site

Ray Smith is the historian at the Y-12 National Security Complex. His specific focus is the history of Oak Ridge, and he is intimately acquainted with the uranium enrichment processes undertaken at the Y-12, K-25, and S-50 plants during the Manhattan Project, and how the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs worked.

Martin J. Sherwin

Washington, DC

Martin Jay Sherwin is an author and historian specializing in the development of atomic weapons and nuclear policy.

John Adams

John Adams is an American composer of contemporary classical music. After graduating from Harvard in 1972, Adams moved to California, where his compositions began to attract attention.

Anthony P. French

Los Alamos, NM

Anthony French is a British physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. After graduating from Cambridge University, French began working on the British effort to build an atomic bomb, codenamed "Tube Alloys", at the Cavendish Laboratory.