History of Materials Science Institutions

Materials science requires a diverse set of institutions to interact closely and flexibly in staging research events, and to allow different kinds of communities and facilities to intersect. These institutions, however, tend to drop out of the history of scientific research. This talk divides such institutions into five basic, though often overlapping, kinds: physical sites (laboratories), educational institutions, societies, funding agencies, and journals. The talk discusses the importance of these institutions and makes a brief survey of them.