American Science and Technology Policy from the Cold War to Obama

Dr. Zuoyue Wang, Professor of Science History, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Who Owns Culture? P.F. Chang’s as a Chinese Restaurant in America

Dr. Haiming Liu, Professor of Asian American Studies, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Time:  3:00 – 5:30 pm, July 1 (Friday)

Venue:  Room 115, SEIS Building  (英语楼115室）

Language: English

American Science and Technology Policy from the Cold War to Obama

Speaker: Dr. Zuoyue Wang

Professor of Science History

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Time:  3:00 – 4:00 pm, July 1 (Friday)

Venue:  Room 115, SEIS Building  (英语楼115室）

Language: English

Who Owns Culture?

P.F. Chang’s as a Chinese Restaurant in America

Speaker: Prof.  Haiming Liu

Professor of Asian American Studies,

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Time:  4:00 – 5:00 pm, July 1 (Friday)

Venue:  Room 115, SEIS Building  (英语楼115室）

Language: English

About the Lecture

A historical examination of American science and technology policy from the Cold War, especially the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, to Barack Obama’s terms in office indicates that indeed the two presidents shared some similar policy preferences—for pragmatic actions by the government, for basic research, for balance, and for long-term solutions—but their external political environments, both domestic and international, were very different. The prominence of national security and national prestige in science and technology policy in the post-Sputnik era under Eisenhower has given way to priorities related to economy, energy, environment, and international competition in technological innovations while a more intense political partisanship has made it hard to reach policy consensus under Obama. While both presidents succeeded, to a certain degree, in defining and capitalizing on their respective crises—Sputnik then and the rise of China and India now—to promote science, technology, and education, the significance of Obama’s science and technology policy still depends on what happens in his second term and beyond.

About the Speaker

Zuoyue Wang is a professor of history at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with interests in modern science and technology in the US and China. Trained as a physicist in China, he received his PhD in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1994. He shared the 2003 Price-Webster Prize from the History of Science Society and chaired the Price-Webster Prize Committee for 2015. He was the Hixon-Riggs Visiting Professor in Science, Technology, and Society at Harvey Mudd College in 2008-2009. His In Sputnik’s Shadow: The President’s Science Advisory Committee and Cold War America appeared in English in 2008 and in simplified Chinese in 2011. He received a grant from the National Science Foundation in 2010-2014 to study the transnational history of Chinese American scientists and delivered the American Institute of Physics’ Lyne Starling Trimble Science Heritage Lecture in March 2016. He currently serves as Vice President of the Pacific Circle, a division of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and in the editorial board of The British Journal for the History of Science, Endeavour, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and Technology and three other Chinese journals.