The Emergence and Growth of Materials Science in Swedish Universities Downloaded from: https://research.chalmers.se, 2021-10-03 08:04 UTC Citation for the original published paper (version of record): Gribbe, J., Hallonsten, O. (2017) The Emergence and Growth of Materials Science in Swedish Universities Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 47(4): 459-493 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2017.47.4.459 N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper. research.chalmers.se offers the possibility of retrieving research publications produced at Chalmers University of Technology. It covers all kind of research output: articles, dissertations, conference papers, reports etc. since 2004. research.chalmers.se is administrated and maintained by Chalmers Library (article starts on next page) JOHAN GRIBBE AND OLOF HALLONSTEN* The Emergence and Growth of Materials Science in Swedish Universities ABSTRACT The cross-disciplinary field of materials science emerged and grew to prominence in the second half of the twentieth century, drawing theoretical and experimental strength from the rapid progress in several natural sciences disciplines and connect- ing to many industrial applications. In this article, we chronicle and analyze how materials science established itself in Swedish universities in the 1960s and after. We build on previous historical accounts of the growth of materials science else- where, especially in the United States, and the conceptual guidance that these studies offer. We account for the emergence and growth of materials science in Sweden from the early influences brought back by academics from postdoc stays *Gribbe: Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden;
[email protected]; Hallonsten: Lund Univer- sity School of Economics and Management, P.O.