David Kaiser (physicist)

David Kaiser
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materDartmouth College (A.B. 1993)
Harvard University (Ph.D 1997, 2000)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
History of science
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Websitehttp://web.mit.edu/dikaiser/www/

David I. Kaiser is an American physicist and historian of science. He is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a full professor in MIT's department of physics. He also served as an inaugural associate dean for MIT's cross-disciplinary program in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing.[1]

Kaiser is the author or editor of several books on the history of science, including Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics (2005), How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival (2011),[2] and Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (2020).[3] He received the Apker Award[4] from the American Physical Society in 1993 and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010. His historical scholarship has been honored with the Pfizer Award (2007)[5] and the Davis Prize (2013)[6] from the History of Science Society. In March 2012 he was awarded the MacVicar fellowship, a prestigious MIT undergraduate teaching award.[7] In 2012, he also received the Frank E. Perkins Award from MIT for excellence in mentoring graduate students.[8]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference bio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Gusterson, Hugh (2011). "Physics: Quantum outsiders". Nature. 476 (7360): 278–279. Bibcode:2011Natur.476..278G. doi:10.1038/476278a..

    George Johnson, "What Physics Owes the Counterculture", The New York Times, June 17, 2011.

  3. ^ Phillip Ball, "Quantum inheritance and the ongoing quest for meaning", Physics World, 47-48, May 18, 2020.
  4. ^ American Physical Society, "LeRoy Apker Award: An Undergraduate Physics Achievement Award", accessed January 13, 2023.
  5. ^ History of Science Society, "Pfizer Award".
  6. ^ History of Science Society, "Davis Prize".
  7. ^ Jesse Kirkpatrick, "Four MacVicar Recipients", The Tech, 132(13).
  8. ^ MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, "David Kaiser receives Frank E. Perkins Award" (2012).